An Investigation of Using a Virtual Target for Air-to-Air Tracking Handling Qualities (HQ) Evaluation (HAVE TRACK)

This technical report presents the results of the Investigation of Using a Virtual Target for Air-to-Air Tracking Handling Qualities (HQ) Evaluation (HAVE TRACK). The objective of the project was to evaluate the use of flight test head-up display (HUD) tracking tasks as a replacement for the aircraft tracking tasks currently used to evaluate HQ. Specifically, air-to-air tracking tasks were evaluated to determine if a target aircraft could be replaced with a HUD generated target. Results obtained from numerical HQ prediction methods were compared with the results obtained during actual air-to-air target tracking. In addition to the investigation of HUD tracking task fidelity and numerical HQ prediction methods, this project investigated numerical methods for determining HQ ratings and measuring pilot workload. This project evaluated the use of the power spectral density (PSD) of a pilot's input to the aircraft as a measure of pilot physical workload during tracking tasks. The project evaluated the effect of a learning curve on a pilot's workload. The evaluation was based on the examination of the PSD of the pilot input during successive attempts at the three tracking tasks.