Cockpit Displays is an in-depth examination of the design rationales, test philosophy and test procedures for cockpit systems. Whilst its main emphasis is on cockpit displays, it also includes an important discussion of flight management systems and mission computers. Areas covered include: the cockpit design process, test techniques for flight displays and equipment, and situation awareness testing. Comparing civil and military requirements, it is an important analysis of the lessons learned from test and evaluation and will be of interest to cockpit systems design engineering staff at major airframe manufacturers, procurement executives and program managers at military aircraft program offices and flight test engineers and test pilots.

A study has been conducted to determine the effect of several variations of two types of visual display systems on subjective pilot evaluations and objective measures of performance in the landing approach. Two types of flight approaches were made with either a projector or quasicollimated monitor visual display: (I) the instrument approach, and (2) the visual approach without the normal cockpit instrumentation assistance. The variables examined were color; differences between displays due to quasicollimation of the monitor display; and reduced resolution as related to brightness, contrast, and sharpness. The use of color had two main effects on pilot performance in the landing approach. The touchdown distance and standard deviations increased more for the monitor displays, and the touchdown rates of descent were slightly lower. With quasicollimation, the standard deviations of touchdown distance increased, and the rate-of-descent standard deviations decreased in a direction more favorable with the actual flight data; an association between the standard deviations of rate of descent and touchdown distance suggests that a corresponding decrease in the deviation of rate of descent will be offset with an increase in the deviations of touchdown distance. The time outside the glide-slope error limits was less with the monitor display than with the projector display, and the lateral localizer error was smaller for the projector display because the pilots intercepted the runway center line at a greater distance from the threshold. With reduced resolution, there was a slight change in the touchdown distance and the standard deviation; for the flights made without color, the landings were predominantly to the right of the runway center line with twice the standard deviation. The pilots were more critical of the black and white variation for either display, and favored more use of a color system. Advantages cited for a color system included greater pilot relaxation, decreased fatigue, better picture quality, and more realistic depth perception, particularly with the monitor display. With regard to the reduced-resolution monitor display, the pilots also noted a loss in depth perception and height references, increased visual fatigue, and increased efforts for a reasonable approach in comparison with the projector display. The objective performance measures of the study were reasonably consistent with the pilots' subjective evaluations and comments.

A user's review of the design rationales, test philosophy and procedures of cockpit systems; emphasizing displays, flight management systems and mission computers, military and civil, for engineers, procurement executives and program managers.

The purpose of this study was to explore and demonstrate computer-generated visual displays for dynamic flight simulation. The study was to produce a demonstration, a motion picture film, and a report describing and demonstrating the realism, flexibility, and potential of computer-generated perspective pictures for use with carrier landing simulation. Various complexities of carrier realism, both during the day and at night, were to be demonstrated and recorded. It is shown that it is entirely possible to produce dynamically-changing pictures of the aircraft carrier both quickly enough to keep up with a real-time simulation and realistic enough to be of substantial aid to the pilot-trainee. The report describes both the techniques used to produce these pictures and the potentials of the technique. The equipment used is also described in considerable detail. This report outlines the equipment required to connect this kind of visual simulation onto existing flight simulation equipment. The connection between the visual simulation equipment and the other parts of the simulation is relatively simple, since the simulation need provide only the aircraft position and orientation to the visual picture generator. (Author).