All Weather Landing Simulation for Category III Airborne Configuration. Volume I. Summary of Studies on Flight Directors and Split Axis Control

摘要

Two flight simulation studies were completed testing the feasibility of current display-control concepts and hardware for commercial subsonic jet transport all-weather (Category III) approach and landing. A total of 3,780 simulated landings were flown by 76 B707-720B qualified pilots. The percentage of successful touchdowns (Study 1 = 42%; Study 2 = 65%) was not acceptable for Category III operation. It was concluded that current flight director displays require modification for improved flare and decrab information. While pilots expressed a clear preference for integrated roll bar over crosspointer displays, performance data were essentially equivalent. Lateral control problems were the greatest single cause of unsuccessful touchdowns; an improved decrab presentation only slightly improved performance. The introduction of display and control failures during approach has a detrimental effect on performance at touchdown. While actively engaged on manual vehicle control, pilots overlooked many display failures, and, on some approaches where two successive display failures were given, a large number of pilots did not detect the second failure. The need for improved fault warning displays was clearly demonstrated. Current control-display concepts for this mission segment create a serious workload problem for the pilot; it was demonstrated that the use of autothrottle and split axis control reduces workload and improves approach and landing performance. (Author)