AIRBORNE DATA LINK COCKPIT MANAGEMENT AND DISPLAY

RESEARCH WILL BE CARRIED OUT ON INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS ANDFLIGHT CREW PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO FUTURE DATA LINK COMMUNICATIONS (DLC) SYSTEMS. IT IS EXPECTED THAT AVAILABILITY OF CRITICAL INFORMATION IN THE COCKPIT FROM DLC SYSTEMS WILL FACILITATE IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY. HOWEVER, THERE MAY BE SOME PRICE IN TERMS OF CREW WORKLOAD. TASK ANALYSIS AND HUMAN FACTORS INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS WILL BE APPLIED TO FLIGHT CREW TASKS IN SEVERAL FLIGHT PHASES. TASKS WILL INCLUDE BASELINE AIRCRAFT CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT TASKS AS WELL AS THOSE ASSOCIATED SPECIFICALLY WITH DLC. OBJECTIVES WILL INCLUDE ANALYSES OF TASK SEQUENCE TIMING AND INFORMATION UTILIZATION TO INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF DLC ACTIVITIES ON FLIGHT CREW PERFORMANCE. IT IS CONSIDERED POSSIBLE THAT INTERACTION WITH COCKPIT DLC SYSTEMS COULD IMPACT THE TIME REQUIRED TO COMPLETE CRITICAL TASK SEQUENCES. THESE ISSUES WILL BE INVESTIGATED USING FLIGHT CREW TASK MODELS EXECUTED UNDER SIMWAM WHICH IS A COMPUTER APPLICATION DEVELOPED BY CARLOW TO SIMULATE THE OPERATION OFA MAN-MACHINE SYSTEM AS A NETWORK OF TASKS. SIMWAM MODELS WILL INCLUDE EFFECTS OF DLC TASK ACTIVITIES AS WELL AS PROCESSES AND PARAMETERS REPRESENTING VARIOUS FLIGHT CONDITIONS AND EVENTS. STATISTICAL DATA OUTPUT BY SIMWAM WILL BE USED TO PERFORM THE REQUIRED ANALYSES.