A Novel Aircraft Instrument Display to Minimize the Risks of Spatial Disorientation

A novel instrument display designed to reduce cognitive workload was tested against a standard instrument panel using a helicopter mockup linked to a computer flight simulator. Both pilots and nonpilots were used as subjects and tests involved recovery from unusual aircraft attitudes as well as flight maneuvering instruments. The novel display incorporates heading, speed, roll, and pitch into a single tracking task. Users set the desired heading and the desired speed (and the desired altitude and glide path). The display then guides control movements to achieve and maintain the desired parameters. Results from the unusual attitudes experiment showed significant benefits from the novel display, evident in improved performance on a secondary task (noise identification) and reduced control input errors. Results from the flying portion of the study showed significantly improved performance at the secondary task together with improved speed control when using the new display, although heading control was reduced. Further modifications to the new display have been introduced since these initial experiments, and further testing should be carried out using dynamic displays during unusual attitudes and continual data collection during flight.