The Isolation of Minimum Sets of Visual Image Cues Sufficient for Spatial Orientation during Aircraft Landing Approaches

Abstract

An experimental investigation of synthetic imaging displays was directed toward the isolation of minimum sets of visual cues sufficient for spatial orientation in ground-referenced aircraft landing approaches. Thirty-two flight instructors viewed static computer-generated airport scenes TV-projected onto a large screen viewed from the cockpit of the twin-engine general aviation trainer. Judgments of lateral and vertical deviations from a four-degree approach to landing aim point in the display were made to 32 combinations of four contact analog cues: runway outline, runway touchdown zone, runway centerline, and ground plane texture; and one guidance cue: glidepath-localizer symbol. Each resulting display was responded to once or more from each of 27 different flight position and attitude viewpoints by each of eight subjects in different serial orders. Dependent measures were response choice and response latency. The most accurate glidepath and course deviation judgments were made when the guidance cue glidepath was in the set. When only contact analog cues were present the best judgments of spatial orientation consistently were made when the runway outline was present at far and medium ranges from touchdown and when the runway centerline was present at near range.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA046369

Entities

People

  • Janice E. Eisele
  • Robert C. Williges
  • Stanley N. Roscoe

Organizations

  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Landings
  • Aircrafts
  • Altitude
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Applied Psychology
  • Engineering
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Flight Paths
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Instructors
  • Military Research
  • Operations Research
  • Psychology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Simulators
  • Systems Engineering
  • Training Aircraft

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).