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enter image description here

Hello does anybody know what the purpose of this odd looking shape is

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  • $\begingroup$ Not from that view. Do you have another? $\endgroup$
    – CrossRoads
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 20:44
  • $\begingroup$ Here's another view found by doing an image search for "737 cockpit side": c8.alamy.com/comp/KH19K7/… $\endgroup$
    – Greg Hewgill
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 20:55
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    $\begingroup$ This could just be there to prevent human body parts like an arm or the forehead to get stuck on the window handle in flight, e.g. when a pilot gets incapacitated and falls forward. $\endgroup$
    – Jan
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 21:23

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That protrusion makes it so that the pilot can only grasp, and activate, the handle by sliding his hand in to it from behind - which requires a deliberate action, rather than by accidentally resting one's hand on it from above. Since the window opening inadvertently is undesirable, it makes sense to block off the most likely means on unintentionally grabbing the handle.

It also provides a visual reference for the handle being in the locked closed position... if the handle is aligned with the fairing, it's locked; if not then it isn't.

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  • $\begingroup$ That's gotta be a band-aid fix added after some incidents. $\endgroup$
    – John K
    Commented Jan 9, 2019 at 2:05
  • $\begingroup$ The 737 flies just fine with the window open, it really isn't even as noisy/windy as one would expect. The video also shows the use of that as a hand-hold to push the window closed. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Beyer
    Commented Jan 9, 2019 at 15:12

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