Well, this took forever.

I have wanted to look into how the Whale's cockpit was designed given its size, and its unique position with no downward visibility.

I sat down and considered what would be needed. The plane carries a lot of sensors and extra systems, and is expected to fly for days on end. So it needs to carry backup systems if something vies out in the air.

As such I went for a glass cockpit, but with a set of analogue gauges as backups in case the Whale suffers power issues during flight. It also packs multiple generators to maintain radio and hydraulics to keep it going and let it land or limp back to base.

Because of this, I opted to include a full technician console behind the pilots, where the flight tech has full control of the plane's systems and, under most circumstances, able to fix it from there.

To combat the lack of downward visibility, I went with the simple solution: a camera. Mounted near the sonar under the nose, it has limited gimble and can even zoom and have different vision modes, like infrared and so on. It is mostly needed for the pilots during landing.

Finally, I needed to figure out how to access it by the ladder. It is a small opening, but it does also provide safety from hostile forces. The Flight tech should be careful though as, when he pushes his chair back to open the hatch, he is risking a 2 meter (6ft 7in) fall into the sleeping quarters.

All in all, it was a fun thing to investigate, if time consuming. Enjoy