AAWSAP DIRD, Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, November 2010

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operating the vehicle and carrying out the mission.
It is functionally similar to the
"flight management system" 49 of commercial aircraft. The pilot needs critical
information in real time that can be easily interpreted. If anything goes wrong, the pilot
needs to know the options and probable consequences of each option. A simplified
depiction of the nature of the emergency is also critical. Predicted consequences and
risks of each response option should also be succinctly displayed as part of the adaptive
display options. The pilot also needs to know, unambiguously and quickly, how to select
any option. The envisioned functions include the following:
•
Automated assessment and display of the overall vehicle operational status.
•
Automated assessment and display of pilot's health and functional status. (If the
system detects that the pilot is incapacitated, it automatically engages the "get
medical assistance" emergency response mode.)
•
Provide short-list of anomaly/emergency response options
•
In emergency, time-critical situations, the system will automatically choose its top
recommended response if the pilot does not enter in a command within the required
time.
•
Checklists for various procedures (e.g., pre- and post-flight or diagnostics).
•
Monitor progress relative to mission goals and timeline.
•
Provide access to other databases (e.g., something akin to an Internet search).
•
Provide the option to project a larger version of the display on the virtual surround,
whereupon gesture-based commands can be used.
When designing this panel, the lessons discussed in Chapter 2 regarding adaptive
displays and graphical and alphanumeric representations should be followed. This
includes hierarchical organization, limit of displayed choices of four to seven,
simultaneous display of the current mode of the display relative to a model of the
system, and sound and verbal accompaniment for displayed information.
Additionally, the functions of the survival enunciator, flight mode panel, and emergency
response panel are all tied into the flight assistant, but these fixed panels provide only
the most critical alarm and response options. One of the emergency response panel
buttons allows for selection of whatever response option is currently displayed on the
flight assistant panel, while the other emergency response buttons are fixed functions.
Survival Enunciator Panel
On the left side of the flight mode panel, between the center and left main panels, is
the survival enunciator. For this limited-size enunciator, only those alarms that are of a
life-threatening nature are listed. Less critical alarms are either handled by the flight
assistant or the side panels. Audio cues are also recommended for this enunciator, with
the added feature that the direction of the source of the sound corresponds to the
location of the alarm.
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