Search Results

Perspective Flightpath Guidance (PFG) Current requirements for precision air navigation are no longer in nautical miles, but tenths of miles as reflected in the RNP3 (Required Navigation Performance) or Required Navigation Performance (desired flight path) of .3 NM (± .n nmi). Flight director guidance for critical maneuvers (those maneuvers with very small or reduced margins for error) is essential for precision navigation requirements. Current generations of guidance symbology (Delta-Veebar and Two-bar) work well, but are limited in their ability to display future flight path information to the pilot and/or the results of pilot control input. Both display symbology sets are designed to follow command guidance from an off-course situation to return to a nominal (null error) solution, known as a compensatory tracking task.

A short haul civil transport (SHCT) tiltrotor is a VSTOL transport type aircraft with performance equivalent to that of a medium performance transport turboprop aircraft having the additional unique capability to land and takeoff vertically (Figure 1). SHCT flight deck (or crew system design) has as its end requirement, the implementation of those systems required to operate a functional, commercially viable, short haul civil transport (SHCT) in the national and international airspace systems. Short haul transport flight deck/crew systems design and integration must consider the mission requirements, unique aerodynamic characteristics and performance requirements and capabilities (flight profiles) of the aircraft to be used.

The requirement for crew resource management (CRM), or aircrew coordination training (ACT) in military parlance, has been well documented and attested to. In addition, aircraft systems training has become more intense and more in-depth in the new aircraft designs, especially in multi-crew and complex aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey Tiltrotor. (see Figure 1) Former training systems detailed training procedures that called for classroom training and simulation/simulator training followed by flight training. Improvements in aircraft flight skills training provide increased flying training capability coupled with reduced training time by integrating a mixed simulation/flight training syllabus, e.g. two to three simulation periods followed by one or two flight training periods covering the same material/skills. In addition, the simulation training will introduce new skills; the following flight periods will further refine/hone those skills.

Some aspects of Human Factors have long been a neglected area in rotorcraft design. This is true of such areas not directly influenced by motion and workload studies: the areas of human factors missing from the domain of human factors are those not included in the engineering set, but in the psychological and physiological set. Rotorcraft human factors issues are many of the same developed or determined for the aircraft/airplane category and can be divided into groups such as the man, machine, environment. Included are the issues of operating criteria (environment) of the rotorcraft and its pilots, design criteria to aid that pilot to alleviate stress and enable a functional cockpit (machine), and the issues of how best to train the pilot (man), mentally and physically, to accomplish the tasks set before him. Systems such as aircraft design and operation, crew physiology and training and airspace management need to be revamped and updated.