COCKPITShipping

Fly it like a game.

The Cockpit turns Mission Control into an immersive, single-view piloting surface. Flight behaviors become first-class Skills bound to hotkeys and a gamepad, shown on a bottom Skill Bar, flown full-screen over live video, a glass HUD, a proximity radar, and a map overlay.
cockpit
14
Built-in Skills
1
Unified Skill Model
Gamepad
& Keyboard
3
Extension slots

THE COCKPIT

A full-screen view built for flying.

A dedicated cockpit takes over the screen and drops the app chrome. Live video fills the frame, a glass HUD paints attitude, altitude, and heading over it, a proximity radar tracks what is around the aircraft, and the Skill Bar sits along the bottom. It is the same GCS underneath, arranged for the moment you are actually piloting.

  • Full-screen cockpit that opts out of the app chrome
  • Glass HUD over live video with a proximity radar
  • A bottom Skill Bar with icons, hotkeys, and state
  • Reuses the same video, HUD, and gamepad pipeline as the rest of the GCS
cockpit-detail

THE LAYERS

One view, composited from layers.

The cockpit is a stack of layers on one screen. Video is the base, and the HUD, the radar, and a map overlay paint on top, so everything you need to fly stays in a single glance.

Video

Live video fills the frame

The drone stream fills the whole view with low latency over the WebRTC relay. Everything else paints on top of it, so the picture is the cockpit, not a small pane in a dashboard.

HUD

A glass HUD over the picture

Attitude, altitude, speed, heading, and mode draw as a translucent HUD on a canvas over the video. The same draw layer the rest of the GCS uses, arranged for a full-screen view.

Radar

A proximity radar

A radar ring tracks what is around the aircraft so nearby traffic and obstacles stay in view even when they are outside the camera frame.

Map

A map overlay for context

A map layer keeps position, track, and the mission in the corner of the eye without leaving the flying view, so you never lose where the aircraft is over the ground.

ONE MODEL

Every action is a Skill.

A built-in command like Arm, Return-to-Home, or Land and an extension behavior like Follow-Me share exactly one shape. One registry, one Skill Bar, one binding system, one dispatcher. So an extension behavior binds to a key and fires from the bar the same way a core command does.

THE SKILL MODEL
Built-in commandsArm · RTH · Land · Mode
Extension behaviorsFollow-Me · Orbit
One Skill modeldisabled → armed → confirm → fire
Skill Barbottom HUD
Hotkeysglobal dispatcher
Gamepadbuttons + radial
A Skill moves through the same guarded states whatever supplies it, so an uncertain action arms and asks to confirm before it fires. Extensions contribute Skills through the extension system, so the action bar grows without a fork.

THE PIECES

A game-like control surface.

The Skill Bar, the binding system, gamepad support, and the cooldown feedback are the grammar of a modern game, applied to real flight.

Skill Bar

The bottom bar you fly from

Every armed Skill sits on a bottom bar with its icon, hotkey, and state. It reads like a game action bar, so the whole loadout is one glance away while you fly.

Keybindings

Bind any Skill to a key

Drag a Skill onto a slot to bind it. A global dispatcher owns the keyboard, so there is one place a chord is claimed and reserved chords are refused up front.

Gamepad

Buttons and a radial

The same Skills map onto gamepad buttons through the input pipeline, with a radial menu for the ones you reach for less often. Remap freely and save it.

Feedback

Cooldowns and charges

Skills carry honest cooldowns and charges, drawn on the bar so you always know what is ready. A disabled Skill shows why, an armed Skill asks to confirm.

Loadouts

Save a loadout

Arrange the bar, bind the keys, and save the whole thing as a preset. Switch loadouts for survey, inspection, or manual flying without rebinding.

Layout

Arrange the cockpit

The cockpit has a layout editor. Move the HUD, radar, and video panes where you want them, and the arrangement persists across sessions.

TARGET DESIGNATION

Click a target, and everything follows it.

Click a detected object in the video to designate it as the active target. That one designation is shared, so any Skill that follows a subject, a gimbal that tracks it, or an overlay that tags it all read the same target. A lock-state gate stops on an uncertain or lost track and never re-acquires on its own, so a designation is a deliberate act, never a guess.

  • Click-to-track over the live video
  • One shared designation every follow behavior reads
  • A lock-state gate that stops on an uncertain or lost track
  • Designations clear on their own when the track is gone
designate-target

CONTRIBUTION SLOTS

Extensions plug straight into the cockpit.

The cockpit exposes named slots. An extension declares which ones it fills and the host mounts it in place, sandboxed, so the flying view grows without a fork.

flight.skill

A Skill on the bar

An extension contributes a flight behavior that becomes a Skill on the bottom bar, bindable to a hotkey and a gamepad button like any built-in command.

cockpit.panel

A quick-settings panel

An extension mounts a panel in the cockpit for its own controls and readouts, so a payload or behavior is adjusted without leaving the flying view.

video.overlay

A layer over the video

An extension paints a scoped overlay on the video, letterbox-correct, for a reticle, a track box, or a tag. The host owns z-order and never hands over the whole frame.

Reference SkillFollow-Me

An extension behavior, on the same bar as Arm.

Follow-Me is an extension that contributes a Skill. It uses on-vehicle detection to keep a subject in frame, with a lock-state safety gate that stops on an uncertain or lost track and never re-acquires on its own. Because it is a Skill, it binds to a key, sits on the Skill Bar, and arms and confirms with the same guardrails as a core command. It is the reference for anyone building a flight behavior of their own.

Under active development

The cockpit keeps getting stronger.

The Cockpit is an area we work on continuously. New Skills, richer overlays, better gamepad and multi-camera support, and tighter target tracking land as they are ready. Every release is open source, so you can watch the flying view sharpen in the changelog and shape it with an extension of your own.

Take the cockpit for a spin.

The Cockpit runs in demo mode with a simulated fleet. No hardware needed to feel the Skill Bar.

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