The Human Factors of Cockpit Transitions Between Analog and Digital Displays

Abstract

In the past decade, general aviation aircraft have been the subject of significant changes in cockpit design. The commonly used analog dials present in most aircraft cockpits have since been replaced by highly integrated electronic displays, commonly referred to as glass cockpits. This transition has occurred so rapidly that all new general aviation aircraft are, or will be, equipped with these technologically advanced cockpits. Since most general aviation pilots were trained with older analog displays, it becomes imperative to find out what human factors issues the pilots will encounter when they transition to glass displays. In addition, as most new pilots are trained on glass cockpits, it also becomes imperative to find out what issues the pilots will face when they transition to traditional displays (e.g., in the case of an emergency where the glass displays fail or because future pilots will learn to fly on glass but may subsequently encounter the many older airplanes equipped with traditional cockpits after training).

The present experiment addressed these issues by measuring flight performance, situational awareness and workload using both cockpit display types in various training-test conditions. The training phase of the experiment taught participants the basics of flight, followed by three simulated flights using a Cessna 172 aircraft. Upon successful completion of training, participants were given a test flight mission requiring them to find a downed aircraft and its survivors. Flight performance was measured by three different flight technical errors (FTE); workload was assessed using both an in-flight concurrent-duration-production task and a NASA Task Load Index questionnaire; and situational awareness was measured using three Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technique questionnaires.

Although there were no significant effects of training display type on test flight performance, the results revealed an overall decrease in performance for participants using the glass cockpit compared to participants using the traditional cockpit. Despite the overall worse performance on the glass cockpit, the post-flight questionnaire analyses revealed a distinct subjective preference for the glass cockpit over the traditional cockpit.