We explore the design space for interactive instruments in the cockpit of the future. Touch technologies are going to replace current electronic displays for flying and navigating instruments. For safety and performance reasons, interactive instruments should however maximize the perception, action and collaboration spaces of the pilots, and the literature highlights the limits of touch interaction as for these aspects. Our objective is thus to explore how the physicality of interactive technologies could address this issue. Based on a set of elicited requirements for interactive instruments in the cockpit, we explore the literature on tactile, haptic, tangible, gesture-based, organic and smart materialbased interaction along a multi-dimensional design space, based on shape, perception and programmability.