I understand that historically pilot was sitting on top. And that radar on military planes should be pointed forward-downward and thus cannot be above the pilot(s). But in modern airliners there is so much space. And most important thing to look out for pilots is still the Earth. The Concorde even had a movable nose so the pilots could see better during takeoff, landing and taxiing.
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Pilot here. Visibility is better overall with the current configuration. Wherever you place the cockpit, you are going to have trade-offs on what you can see and how well. You can see the ground well enough for taxi, take-offs and landings with the cockpit up front and on top. That also usually gives each pilot a good view of the wing and engines on their side. Most importantly, that position gives you the best point of view to look for other aircraft when flying. Finally, seeing the ground isn’t that important for most of the flight. Navigation is mostly by GPS and instruments which work just fine without a view of the surface. For older aircraft that relied on a navigator with a map, they often had either a window on the bottom for them to look out of or the whole front of the cockpit was mostly plexiglass (think WW2 bomber). The Concorde design had poor visibility when the nose was in position for high speed flight, so they made it adjustable for landings. That was a design decision so it could go supersonic. That’s an expensive fix for a problem other aircraft don’t have.
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