An engineering approach to determining visual information requirements for flight control tasks

An experimental and analytical investigation of visual information requirements for a simplified, multiloop flight control tasks was undertaken using a simulated aircraft disturbed in roll attitude by random turbulence. Only lateral control was investigated. The main experimental variable was the amount of information given to the pilot via a CRT display. Root-mean-square (RMS) performance, as well as pilot transfer functions, were measured for six test subjects. Experimental evidence suggesting innerloop pursuit behaviour on the part of one of the subjects is discussed. Analytical pilot modelling of compensatory behaviour is presented with a simplified optimal control model.