· · · Institutional Repository

The upgrade of the flight deck instruments from electro-mechanical dials and gauges towards computer-driven systems and interfaces was a necessary step to accommodate the increasing demands in flight technical performance and safety. The upgrade was a relatively slow process, however, where new systems were developed and installed as soon as the technology was available. As a result, many systems are not always well integrated in terms of presenting information. Together with the increasing amount of automation, the flight deck has become prone to issues such as information ambiguities and misunderstandings between the pilot and the (automated) avionic systems. This phenomenon is commonly labeled as a lack of "situation awareness" (SA) and has become a new cause for accidents. That is, pilots are unaware sometimes of the current flight situation, a situation that in itself may be caused by the automation. A recent example of this phenomenon is the Turkish Airlines accident near Schiphol on February 25 2009. The focus of this thesis is on aircraft terrain avionics, such as the Terrain Awareness Warning System (TAWS) and the Synthetic Vision System (SVS), that form a typical illustration of the evolution process and its issue regarding SA. The work in this thesis aimed to identify and address the missing information that would span the information gaps between the SVS and the TAWS to benefit pilot SA. The Ecological Interface Design (EID) framework was explored to accomplish this goal. EID was originally developed for the process industry (like nuclear power plants) and is therefore a rather novel approach in the field of flight deck design. The results of experimental evaluations indicated that pilots managed to benefit from the ecological interface enhancements to successfully and safely deal with hazardous terrain conflicts, even when encountering unanticipated events. It was found that the ecological interfaces made pilots more aware of the aircraft capabilities and much more actively involved in the decision-making loop to prevent fatal mishaps.

In many cockpits, control display units (CDUs) are vital input and information devices. In order to improve the usability of these devices, Barco, in cooperation with TU-Delft, created a touch screen control unit (TSCU), consisting of a high-quality multi-touch screen. The unit fits in the standard dimensions of a conventional CDU and is thus suitable for both retrofit and new installations. The TSCU offers two major advantages. First, the interface can be reconfigured to enable consecutive execution of several tasks on the same display area, allowing for a more efficient usage of the limited display real-estate as well as a potential reduction of cost. Secondly, advanced graphical interface design, in combination with multi-touch gestures, can improve human-machine interaction. To demonstrate the capabilities of this concept, a graphical software application was developed to perform the same operations as a conventional CDU, but now using a direct manipulation interface (DMI) of the displayed graphics. The TSCU can still be used in a legacy CDU mode, displaying a virtual keyboard operated with the touch interface. In addition, the TSCU could be used for a variety of other cockpit functions. The paper concludes with a report of pilot and non-pilot feedback.

Two of the major projects in ATM development, SESAR and NextGen, both fore- cast the use of 4D trajectories as an intermediate phase in the development of full Performance Based Trajectories. Using 4D trajectories, the full positional and time coordinates of the aircraft are known throughout the planned trajectory. During approach, when reduced separation minimums are applied, the accuracy of this profile is most important to ensure a safe approach to the runway. One implementation of 4D approaches is by using Required-Time of Arrival (RTA) to separate aircraft during approach. The latest Flight Management Computers are capable of calculating a flight-path w.r.t. to a RTA. This paper describes the amount of time error that can occur during approaches where an RTA is set at the runway threshold that could still be resolved by increasing or decreasing the speed-profile. The minimum and maximum bounds are referred to as control space. Using simulations, the recoverable time error is calculated. Lateral trajectories from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, different wind conditions and two different aircraft types were included to investigate different factors influencing the time error, such as aircraft type, speed restrictions and wind. Finally, the paper discusses a new method to control time-based spacing using a closed-loop speed controller.

In order to reduce noise nuisance around Schiphol Airport, a Continuous Descent Approach procedure was introduced in the late ’90s. Unfortunately, because unpredictable individual aircraft behavior lead to increased landing intervals for this procedure, it is currently only applied during night time operations. Time-of-Arrival control in the terminal area could reduce the landing interval for this procedure. The research presented in this paper investigates the influence of multiple segments with different flight-path angles on the time of arrival. A new procedure with Variable Flight-path angle (VFA) involving active planning of the approach from the pilot through a pilot support interface, presented in the Vertical Situation Display. A preliminary pilot-in-the-loop evaluation was conducted, to investigate pilot performance, workload and interface usability. Three scenarios were tested, all with different Required Time of Arrival. Workload was low for all scenarios and performance good for the two scenarios with early arrival times. For the scenario with a late arrival time, performance was mediocre. Changes in representation of the flap and gear cues and the addition of Estimated Time of Arrival information might improve the performance.