Results on the Evaluation of a new HUD Symbology

Abstract

Air travel is expected to grow around 5 percent per year over the next 20 years, resulting in an estimated increase in the number of airplanes in service to around 35.000 in 2032. Therefore, aviation stakeholders, through programs like SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the US are developing ways to create additional airspace capacity and decrease delays both on the ground and in the air. One way to reduce runway occupancy time could be to allow simultaneous independent departures from parallel runways under instrument flight rules in instrument weather conditions. Within the scope of ACROSS, a project co-funded by the European Commission, DLR is working on additional head-up-display symbology to support the pilot during take-off by increasing situation awareness and reducing workload, while at the same time enhancing safety and performance. In addition to the standard symbology, the new layout includes information about traffic in the vicinity, a no-transgression zone, obstacles and runway limits. Human Factors principles were the main driver of all evaluations performed so far. The display was assessed using performance, eye-tracking and subjective data in the form of questionnaires. The evaluations were successful. Pilots performed the low visibility take-off without major problems. The pilots were in general very supportive and provided important feedback. This will be used to further improve the display to support the pilots managing workload during take-off.