Yeah the cockpit has all the sensing, so in short without your cockpit most funky-trees break down

Once a plane looses a certain percentage of its parts, (I think it's one third, but I don't remember) it is legally counted as "critically damaged" by simple planes, meaning nothing will shoot at it, or attack it.
@YarisSedan was right.
It is possible to detach the main cockpit to get the same result, but then the altitude and speed will be all wrong, and a lot of the other stuff won't work.

I have a good similar Example

@overlord5453 hmmmm interesting, good to know

@overlord5453 yeah, something like that

@pohhhhhhum @YarisSedan if I remember correctly, when an aircraft loses 1/3 of it's part count it's counted as "dead". Or you could just detach the main cockpit from the aircraft. But that would render the weapons useless except the guns.

i think it has something to do with the critically damaged exploit, but i don't know how it works myself so... i'll just let mouse do the talking instead of me

@TheMouse