Development of a Prototype Experimental Plan to Evaluate Stabilized Optical Viewing Devices. II. Inflight Measures of Airsickness Potential.

摘要

Investigators at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory and the U. S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory conducted a combined field and laboratory study to evaluate observer performance while using an improved XM-76 stabilized viewing device. Air-to-ground observations were made in a UH-1 aircraft, flying maneuvers modeled in part after a scout helicopter scenario. The experimental protocol was such that visual acuity data were collected under three different observation conditions: with the naked eye, with XM-76 operated in its normal stabilized mode, and with the XM-76 operated in a caged or nonstabilized mode. Measures of selected airsickness symptoms were derived from an onboard flight observer and from postflight questionnaires. The resulting data indicate that the level of airsickness symptoms manifested by the subject group while using the device was higher than the baseline level present when the observations were made without the device. In contradistinction to the hypothesis that the stabilization feature of such devices increases the airsickness potential, the general trend of the data showed the opposite effect.