Question on Jet fighters cockpits

[holyuo]

Hi, i'm new here, i'd like to know why is the Jet fighters cockpits so near to the front like on the F16, isnt a more central or rear position a better place to have control of the airplane like on a formula 1, I was just wondering. If someone could give me an engineer point of view of this i'd appreciate it. Thanks

oh and something comes to mid that i've been asking myself is why is formula 1 cars rims are so small and big tires and high performance cars have big rims and low level tires, so little rubber compared to a F1. Thans for you answers.

 

[Cailet]

Visibility to the front is key. If the cockpit is set too far back then the pilot can't see the ground when landing and can't see things flying slightly below and in front of the aircraft. The Spitfire in WW2 had that problem with it's long sleek cowling that some pilots flew into aircraft in front of them they simply couldn't see.

It also likely has to do with engine placement and the like. Pilots have enough problems without sitting in the middle of the jet pipe, just imagine the shielding you'd need to keep the temperatures tolerable! A few old concepts had the pilot mounted in that way so it may well be feasible but to my knowledge none of them were even prototyped.

In F1 the driver's own weight distribution matters a lot to the car (60-100 kilos in a machine weighing 620kg) so mounting his weight centrally makes sense, in a fighter aircraft weighing 10-20 tonnes the pilot's weight (even with all his life support and control interfaces) is a far smaller fraction of the whole and can be mounted at one end of the aircraft with the engines and fuel tanks dictating the centre of mass.