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Human Factors Considerations of Aircraft Displays
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Abstract
In current general aviation aircraft it is not uncommon to find very old designs of electromechanical instruments next to state of the art pixel-based displays. A number of these instruments appear to be inadequate from a legibility, interpretability, and operational point of view. This paper contains a review of the relevant display reading performance literature. The key principles (luminance contrast and critical detail) of display legibility are demonstrated using a general aviation altimeter as an example. A particular safety concern is the legibility of the pressure display found on typical altimeter instruments.
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Citation
Wentz, C., Schnell, T., and Zwahlen, H., "Human Factors Considerations of Aircraft Displays," SAE Technical Paper 981237, 1998, https://doi.org/10.4271/981237.Also In
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