Evaluation of the Terrain Avoidance Function of a Multimode Radar Display

摘要

Fourteen Air Force pilots flew a simulated mission under various flight conditions to determine the adequacy of the C-5A Multimode Radar (MMR) terrain avoidance display symbology. A C-135B flight simulator converted to the C-5A cockpit configuration was employed as the test bed. The pilots were divided into two groups: One to fly a series of terrain avoidance mission profiles using the current MMR display; the other to fly the same missions using an alternate display configuration. Each pilot had to fly a 150 NM simulated mission under each of the following conditions: (1) VFR without the radar display; (2) VFR with the radar display; (3) marginal VFR with the radar display; and (4) IFR with the radar display. The two display configurations were evaluated by comparing pilot performance under the various flight conditions. No overall significant statistical differences in pilot performance were attributable to the display configurations, although the trend of the objective data favored the alternate display. A significant difference between the various flight conditions was obtained. Pilot ratings of both display configurations tended to favor the alternate scope.