Utility of a Ghost Horizon and Climb/Dive Ladder Line Tapering on a Head-Up Display
Abstract
As part of a United States Air Force (USAF) effort to standardize head-up display (HUD) symbology, an unusual attitude recovery task was employed to investigate the utility of a cue, the ghost horizon, that indicates the direction of the actual horizon when the climb/dive ladder (CDL) horizon line is not within the HUD field of view. Six HUD-experienced and 6 non-HUD-experienced military pilot subjects were used to determine whether there was improvement, with the ghost horizon, in ability to recover from nose-down unusual attitudes in a flight simulator. The ghost horizon was evaluated with 3 different CDL line configurations (tapered, nontapered, reverse tapered). In terms of accuracy of the initial stick input, the ghost-horizon configurations resulted in significantly better performance (about 11% better) than did the non-ghost- horizon configurations. The ghost horizon had no effect on initial stick input reaction time or total recovery time. The CDL line taper configuration did not affect accuracy, initial stick input reaction time, or total recovery time. Subjective data indicated that the pilots did not have a strong preference for any of the configurations. These findings suggest that the ghost horizon is a useful aid to unusual attitude recovery performance, and may reduce spatial disorientation. Head-up display (HUD), Cockpit displays, Flight instruments, Spatial disorientation, Display symbology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA264401
Entities
People
- Lisa F. Weinstein
- William R. Ercoline