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With touchscreens being installed in aircraft flight decks, reach-and-turbulence-related challenges arise. Using the ISO 9241-411 multidirectional selection task (a 2D Fitts' task), we quantified the impact of vibration on touchscreen target selection throughput (a performance score combining both speed and accuracy) and error rate in a cockpit layout. 24 participants completed the task under 2 vibration levels (helicopter level flight versus static), 2 hand support methods (using the thumb, while holding onto the screen's edge, versus using the index finger freehand), 4 touchscreen types (two avionic and two consumer touchscreens), 2 touchscreen positions (main instrument panel versus pedestal), and 4 target sizes (0.8, 1, 1.5 and 2 cm). We found average throughput values of 6.5 bits per second (bps) in static conditions, versus 5.7 bps under vibration, and average error rates of 10.3% in static conditions, versus 16.6% under vibration. Similar to prior work, we found an exponential increase in error rate with decreasing target size. Larger target sizes helped mitigate the impact of vibration. We did not find evidence of a benefit to anchoring the hand on the touchscreen's bezel edge, compared to the freehand baseline, under vibration or static conditions. Under vibration, the pedestal outperformed the main instrument panel position, with higher throughput and lower error rate. In static conditions, the two positions performed similarly. This work contributes to vibration mitigation methods when interacting with touchscreens in the aviation context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing interest in "connected services" is set to revolutionize the design of future transport systems. In aviation, connected portable Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) would enable some of the traditional and more arduous preflight activities (e.g., route planning) to be conducted away from the flight deck. While this offers the opportunity to improve efficiency, any potential changes to the performance of the system need to be considered alongside the possible negative outcomes. The impact of EFBs on flight operations is assessed using Operator Event Sequence Diagrams (OESDs), which allow the operator interactions with technological systems to be mapped across different scenarios. This paper presents two OESDs: one focusing on current practise and one representing a "future" scenario whereby connected EFBs are commonplace. Our analysis predicts a 44% reduction in flight‐crew operational loading due to increased connectivity in the flight deck. Not only does the analysis highlight the reduction in operations but it also presents the utility of OESDs in the development of the connected EFBs of the future as well as their broader use in understanding the impact of new technologies on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flight deck of aircraft carriers in operation is exposed to fire risks which must be mitigated by fire safety measures such as firefighting and suppression systems. To develop advanced fire safety measures, the quantitative risk assessment and management is essential, where fire hazards must be identified in a probabilistic manner considering operational conditions (e.g. sortie generation rates) and site-specific ocean environmental conditions (e.g. humidity, wave and wind profiles). In this paper, a set of realistic fire scenarios on the flight deck of a hypothetical short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) type aircraft carrier are selected, which shall be used for the quantitative fire risk assessment and management. Potential fire hazards are formulated as a function of random parameters associated with operational and ocean environmental conditions, and probabilistic sampling technique is used to select hundred fire scenarios. Fire exceedance diagrams are established in association with fire-impacted (leak) area through the selected fire scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The civil aviation community is actively exploring and developing the solutions of single pilot operations(SPO)for large commercial aircraft. Human factors engineering research for SPO has been launched,and the research mainly focuses on three research solutions:flight deck airborne equipment upgrade,flight support from ground stations,and the combined SPO solution of“flight deck airborne equipment upgrade plus flight support from ground stations”.In this paper the progress of human factors engineering research on SPO is reviewed and analyzed. The preliminary research outcome tends to support the combined SPO solution. However,the current human factors engineering research is not comprehensive and cannot provide a complete human factors engineering solution for SPO. For future human factors engineering research,the key human factors issues on SPO are analyzed and the gaps and the key areas for future work are pointed out. Finally,an overall strategy and recommendations for future human factors engineering research on SPO are put forward in this paper.

Helicopter maneuvers on frigates develop an essential role during military operations. However, the complex flow generated by the frigate bluff-body shapes and the interaction with the helicopter downwash during the recovery process must be studied in detail. In addition, the ground effect can also affect helicopter performance during the maneuver. This study aims to use particle image velocimetry in wind tunnel to analyze the airflow generated by a 1:100-scaled helicopter rotor of the Sea King SH-3 navy helicopter isolated and with the presence of a full and a partial ground to consider the ground effect at different heights. Once the rotor has been studied, experimental tests were carried out of the rotor working next to a frigate model during the recovery maneuver. The measured velocity indicates that the flow asymmetry below the rotor can increase with the proximity to a partial ground distance up to 1.39 times. During the study of the rotor for the frigate landing approach, the downwash asymmetry is also important and changes abruptly the tendency during the last phase of the maneuver. It can lead to dangerous instabilities and problems for the helicopter pilot during the hovering over ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objectives The idea of using the main dimensional factors of a carrier' hull to demonstrate a flight deck's primary design parameters and mathematical models was proposed.Methods After analyzing the design data of thirteen foreign large-middle sized aircraft carriers by virtue of the support vector machine regression (SVR) method and the RBF kernel function, the regression analysis model for predicting the flight deck's primary design parameters was established, and the calculation arguments optimized by the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm to improve the precision of the regression. To examine the performance of the prediction model, the USS Kennedy (CV-67) was selected as the checking sample and the other twelve aircraft carriers as the training samples.Results By comparing the prediction model's regression results with the actual design parameters of the USS Kennedy, it was found that the majority of the flight deck's primary design parameters were excellent and precise predictions. On the other hand, the reasons for the few imprecise predictions were provided in detail.Conclusions The work in this paper provides the necessary technical support for the preliminary design of the aircraft carrier's flight deck.

This paper studies the use of touchscreen displays on the flight deck, focusing on the usability of touch interfaces to complete panning and numeric entry tasks. Results from this study show that the usability of a drag gesture to meet a pan function, surpasses the performance of a simple tapping interface under all turbulent conditions tested. Also, that this drag interface is more useable in an inter‐seat flight deck position, than a central one. It was also found that touchscreen interfaces can surpass the performance of the traditional mechanical dial interface for numeric data entry tasks, under all turbulent conditions tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Since eye movement can provide a reliable index of the attention allocation, which can assist in understanding pilots’ cognitive state, this study investigated the effect of pilots’ experience and the autopilot mode on their attention allocation on the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multi-Function Display (MFD) during an approach task. METHODS: There were 16 pilots who were classified into two levels of aviation expertise depending on the flight hours, and required to fly an Instrument Landing System approach. Their visual scanning behaviors were recorded through an eye tracker and analyzed based on fixation number and dwell time. RESULTS: The results revealed that the pilot experience level, instrument panel and autopilot mode all had significant impact on the fixation time ratio and dwell time. The pilots fixated most often on the PFD and had shorter dwell time. Furthermore, they had a lower fixation number and shorter dwell time on the PFD and MFD when the autopilot was off that they should allocate visual resources to the others (e.g., out-of-the-window) and obtain more information to maintain overall situation awareness under higher time pressure. Compared to pilots with more expertise, pilots with less expertise had an increased fixation number and decreased dwell time on the airspeed after turning off the autopilot. DISCUSSION: The present study indicated that the pilots had different visual scanning modes according to the flight mode and their experience. We expect that pilots’ visual scanning behaviors during tasks will help the training and the design of the human-machine interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aircraft performances over aircraft carriers are essential in modern navies. Take-off operation is critical due to the short runway available. The ski-jump ramp is a useful system that allows to operate under safe conditions. However, the sharp edge at the end of the runway provokes a region with recirculation bubble and low velocity producing strong flow disturbances. Hence, the aircraft performances are affected and the pilot's workload is augmented. Previous researches showed that columnar vortex generator reduces the recirculation bubble generated over the end of flight deck. This article presents an in-depth experimental study performed by wind tunnel testing in order to determine the relation between the columnar vortex generator size and the recirculation bubble reduction. Particle image velocimetry is used to investigate the flow field velocity and flow structure around the ski-jump ramp as a non-intrusive experimental technique. Encouraging results were found for the biggest columnar vortex generator studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is subjected to various loads. In addition, the operation of fixed-wing aircraft presents unique structural requirements for the deck. This paper, therefore, compares the structural behaviour of a flight deck which was designed following the guidelines of three classification societies: Lloyd’s Register (LR), Det Norske Veritas Germanischer Lloyd (DNV), and Registro Italiano Navale (RINA). The loading scenarios considered in this work represent the operation of an F-35B Lightning jet from a Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carrier. A commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software ANSYS was also used to investigate the deflection, stress and strain on the deck plates. The analysis identified that only the calculated deck thickness values based on the LR regulations would meet the requirement for the class. This finding was further supported by the FEA.

The general performance requirements of non -skid coatings for flight decks are summarized. The product standards and test methods of non - skid coatings at home and abroad are analized . the research progress of polyurethane, epoxy resin and silicone coatings is reviewed, and the development trend of silicone non - skid coatings is prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is relatively vulnerable compared to its hull, as the damage of some subsystems on the flight deck may cause the carrier losing its operational capability. Therefore, this work aims to represent a simulative method for evaluating the resistance of the flight deck's operational capability in the condition that the aircraft carrier is together with its strike group and the enemy uses the anti-ship missiles with the cluster warheads to attack. In the simulations, the susceptibility of the carrier and the vulnerability of the aircraft guarantee resources are gained. Then, with the help of the closed queuing network, the residual sortie generation rate can be solved, which reflects the flight deck's residual operational capability. The results have proven that the flight deck is of strong resistance to these attacks while it is very sensitive to the loss of some key aircraft guarantee resources.