Why do aircraft cockpits have so many buttons and switches? What do all those actually control and are they all used?
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It’s mainly redundancy. There are two or three of everything and although the buttons aren’t touched routinely they’re needed to isolate and reconfigure systems if there’s a fault.
On older aircraft at least half the “buttons” on the overhead panel are actually circuit breakers, which makes it look a lot more complicated. These are replaced with reset buttons (A350, A380) or virtual circuit breakers on one of the computer displays (B787).
They work on “lights out” concept where the buttons are unlit if everything is working normally, and illuminated only if there’s a fault or it’s been turned off. Top tip – you can get an Airbus 99% of the way to being ready to fly simply by pushing every button with a white light in it.
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