N'ah, the cockpit will work fine with crosshairs, I'm sure the Dev's have centered it properly.
Either way, instead of research in the early hours, how about eyecandy (only Raptor [placeholder or WIP] cockpit shown). Also, you'll notice there's animated instrumentation, but I am almost positive it's not functional, and it would be difficult to attempt to "place' the current hud information over the 3D instrumentation and have it stick there when you look around (you'll get an effect much like X-Wing Alliance).
I always just assumed the HUD interface was displayed on the glass of the helmets, so it works for me.
http://www.youtube.com/user/KarajormaBack on topic:
I mentioned this idea quite some time ago on the BtRL forums and forgot to check back up. This idea is a result of me thinking that the multiplayer components engagements needed to be juggled up some (circle fight engagements being the main reason), also, engagements within the asteroid would have been even more hectic.
The idea was to include proximity mines/nukes that the player could drop at any given time with a severe limit of between 2 and three (with a possible handicap to the missile payload). I think it would mix things up quite a bit and keep people from remaining within a circle fight too long before disengaging and re engaging, it just adds more of the tight tactical in flight decision making that would really put the multiplayer component over the edge. It would also allow for some great trap laying within places like Scar's Asteroid and any other such massive structures that may appear in the games.
Haven't decided (not that it's up to me) how powerful they should be (or perhaps if there should be different classes of varying power, with payload handicaps), but I don't necessarily think they should kill any ship with 100 Hull rating.
Again, this is something I would think should be exclusive to the MP component and keep in mind that I'm thinking strictly in terms of the game mechanics as they are in the BtRL demo, I have no idea what has changed that might make this idea completely impractical.