A critical issue in military aviation is the pilot’s ability to transition between primarily internal (head-down, instrument-driven) and external (head-up, out of the cockpit) guidance.
Experimental cockpit displays were designed and tested for how well they might support this
transition phase for military pilots performing time-critical air-to-ground targeting missions such
as Forward Air Control and Close Air Support. Twelve subjects performed three sets of
experiments using a flight simulator (with simulated heads-up display in the forward field of
view) connected to a moving-map display. The experiments were designed to help explain
which visual cues in the displays might best help a pilot 1) navigate to a given target area (the
“flight guidance” phase of a mission) and 2) search for, find and identify a target (the “target
acquisition” phase).This work was sponsored by the Naval Research Laboratory Select Graduate Training Program
