Position of Heading Information Presented in HUD for Aircraft Cockpit

An experiment was conducted to research the optimal position of heading information in display formats of fighter HUD. Two display formats were programmed according to the guidelines in ARP5288 or the “Basic T” arrangement in AC25-11B, i.e. display format (a) in which heading information were located on the attitude, and display format (b) in which heading information were positioned below the attitude. In the present study, 151 pilots participated in user performance test in context of simulated A/A and A/G flight tasks for heading information reading and state judgment of aircraft based on the display formats. The results were that the main effect of display formats was marginally significant for CR (P = 0.05) and very significant for CRT (P < 0.001). The display format (b) was maybe slightly better than that of display format (a), or both of the display formats were compatible. The pilots preferred the display format (a) to (b) in a vote (about 98% vs. 30%) after experimental uses, although the display format (b) might be cognized slightly faster than the display format (a). Other findings were also discussed.