A new ecological primary flight display concept

In the current generation electronic primary flight displays, all variables are scaled and displayed without regard to the inherent relationship between airplane flight path and speed related variables, and without regard how the controls of thrust and elevator should be used. This leaves the pilot to solely rely on his experience and skills to realize the desired state of aircraft speed and flight path. The goal of the ecological energy management primary flight display, is to make constraints and complex relationships between various flight dynamics display variables visible and directly actionable to the pilot. In this context, the energy domain is identified as a means to normalize and visualize the relationships between speed and altitude targets, acceleration, vertical speed and flight path angle and to bring out control guidance cues for the efficient use of elevator and throttle control. The feasibility of such an ecological primary flight display is addressed through an analysis of the scaling dependencies. Following an overview of the design issues and required design decisions, the practicality is addressed through an example implementation and a comparison with existing display formats and design recommendations. Finally, recommendations for research are provided to assess the suitability and effectiveness of such a display in improving pilot control performance and workload.