Tactical Aviation and Human Factors: Designing the SIRE Supercockpit

Abstract

Modern air combat represents a highly complex, dynamic domain that presents many significant challenges for military aviators. Current military aircraft provide much more, complex dynamic information than a single human has the ability to simultaneously attend to, let alone comprehend. As technological developments lead to the deployment of enhanced capabilities for information sharing, this trend is expected to continue. Consequently, a significant challenge for aircraft interface designers is to provide mission critical information to pilots in a rapid and effective manner, and to facilitate intuitive and accurate comprehension and operation of aircraft systems. This paper describes the process and one product of an approach to the design of future tactical crewstations that employs human performance evaluations as a design tool, and is offered as a model for the development of any complex system in which enhanced human performance is the desired outcome.