In the Cockpit?

SEELEY LAKE – Someone nervous about flying in an airplane would no doubt derive comfort from knowing a pilot of Sully Sullenberger or Tammie Jo Shults' caliber was in the cockpit. But what are pilots doing in a cockpit? Isn't that a place where rooster fights take place?

Cock fighting (as well as bear-baiting) was a popular form of entertainment in Elizabethan England. The cock pit was a round enclosure with walls too high for the roosters to escape. To allow spectators a better view of the action, rows of seats often surrounded the enclosure, much like the circular theaters of the time, most...