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A new flight reference display for powered-lift STOL aircraft was proposed and evaluated in actual flight environment. The display was developed to provide a simple monitoring system of STOL safety margins with good handling characteristics in place of a speed indicator. Using this display, pilots repeated simulated approaches of the experimental jet STOL “ASKA” using the VSRA as an in-flight simulator. In the evaluation, emphasis was placed on agreement between the display and the motion cues experienced by the pilot. Pilot comments and flight data confirmed satisfactory control characteristics and safety margin presentation of the display.

The paper describes a high performance Head-Up Display (HUD) guidance system installed on the experimental powered-lift STOL aircraft “Aska”. Since the maiden flight in October, 1985, the HUD system has been used in all the flight tests. The HUD has an accurate flight path symbol generated by inertial velocity from the IRS which is updated by up-linked precision radar position data. The flight path symbol is very useful for precise approach and flare control for Aska which has large ground effects. A synthetic runway is also presented, which is conformal with the real runway, using the position data from the ground tracking radar system. Under Instrument Meteorological conditions (IMC), the pilot can approach and land using the HUD synthetic runway as well as in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). The HUD system proved to be a valuable aid to the pilot for all the Aska flight tests.

The present study deals with a proposed flight reference display for powered-lift STOL aircraft. The display design was aimed at providing pilots with new control cues for keeping its flight safety in low-speed and high-power approach. The display utilizes angle of attack, pitch angle and airspeed to indicate the flight reference for maintaining the flight safety margins. The display integrates the flight reference into an analogue airspeed scale. Piloted simulation using a moving-base flight simulator was conducted to verify the display which was designed on the basis of the flight test results of “ASKA”, the experimental STOL aircraft of National Aerospace Laboratory. The test results confirmed that performance of the display was satisfactory for both flight reference tracking and safety margin monitoring, and proper values of coefficients of the display equations were obtained.