Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com APRIL/MAY 2021 33 to-ground combat and visual navigation. Situational awareness is gained from infor- mation presented to the pilot on cockpit displays, or from the outside world in vi- sual range. Third and 4th generation cockpits tend- ed to inundate the pilot with tremendous amounts of data from many sources. In a human factors survey of CF-18 pilots conducted in 1990 by the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine in Downsview, 59 per cent of the pilots interviewed admitted that task saturation was a problem, and 37 per cent reported losing SA at some point in the mission. In an interview with recently retired Lockheed Martin Senior F-35 Test Pilot Lieutenant-Colonel Billie Flynn, RCAF (retired), Billie recalled his early experi- ences as the very first pipe-liner on Can- ada's newly acquired CF-18, circa 1984. During his training, on the same day, only minutes apart, two of his fellow students became transfixed by their (multi-func- tion) displays while attempting to deci- pher what their radars were telling them. When both came out of cloud, each in a very steep dive, one pulled over 11g, near- ly losing consciousness while the aircraft bottomed out of the dive at only 192 feet above ground. He lived to fly another day. The other student pilot was not so fortu- nate, having lost his SA and his life after flying straight into the ground at over 700 Knots (1,296 kilometres per hour). The multi-function display (MFD) had the effect of increasing workload. These displays conveyed the majority of aircraft sensor information and required a great deal of training and cognitive skill to op- erate effectively. The pilot spent much of his or her time managing the MFDs. S/ he changed display selections frequently to gather as much information as possible and was constantly gathering and evaluat- ing data from the selected sensors, at the ranges presently being displayed, while at the same time, wondering about data that might be available on a different range scale, or from another sensor all-together. The Supercockpit In 1985, studies were initiated to identify future cockpit technologies that would address these and other challenges. One of these technologies was dubbed "The Supercockpit." The concept was initially conceived as a cockpit that was to be im- plemented via virtual interfaces between the pilot and the aircraft. Light, sound, and tactile patterns were to be transmit- ted to the senses such that they appear to originate in three-dimensional space sur- rounding the pilot. The intent was to cre- ate a sphere of information through which the aircraft systems and sensors provided the pilot with the required SA. A virtual cockpit was implemented by organiz- ing and fusing data from aircraft avion- ics, weapons, and sensors and portraying this information within a panoramic visual and auditory display for rapid assimilation by the pilot. The pilot could then direct weapons and command aircraft systems using visual, voice, and other psychomo- tor responses. These ideas necessitated the develop- ment of a cockpit that would display in- formation in a three-dimensional format, owing to the natural way humans perceive their environment. This three-dimensional presentation would take the form of a vir- tual world of animation depicting the en- vironment surrounding the cockpit. The use of icons to depict objects such as en- emy aircraft and surface-to-air missile sites was expected to allow the information to be more rapidly understood and assimilat- ed than common alphanumeric terms such as "MIG-29" or "SA-14." To effectively interface with this three-dimensional pre- sentation, the supercockpit had to be able to determine where the pilot was looking and where his head was pointing. To ac- complish this, a special helmet-mounted display system employing very accurate head and eye position sensing would be required. This helmet-mounted system was to eventually permit the activation of aircraft systems simply by looking at the appropriate controls and switches. Senor Fusion Sensor fusion, when properly implement- ed, was a major aid to the pilot's decision- making process and the maintenance of SA. Sensor fusion integrates the informa- tion from radar, EW, Joint Tactical Infor- mation Distribution System (JTIDS), and other sources, and displays it over a digital map on a screen increasingly larger than MFDs typical of the mid to late 1980s. This would allow the pilot to look at a single source to get the big picture. The critical concern of pilots, though, was that sensor fusion needed to be implemented in a manner such that all inputs incorpo- rate historical and real-time information in an easily digestible, uncluttered, and utili- tarian manner. The sheer number of sym- bols, alone, necessitated very large screens in order that sufficient separation was TECHNOLOGY The next-generation Block III Super Hornet. Photo: Boeing.

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