Display Symbology for a Rotary-wing Air Racer

The analysis and design of a new helicopter man-machine interface for a hypothetical rotary-wing air racer as envisioned by the AHS 2012 student design competition is presented. The associated piloting task was modeled using Cognitive Engineering techniques, namely Hierarchical Task Analysis and Abstraction Hierarchy. It was shown that a better integration of collective and pitch control would ease considerably aggressive helicopter flight under manual control while improving the pilot awareness of the constraints limiting the flight envelope. A specific interface could therefore improve both the safety and the performance of helicopters used under such conditions. A corresponding symbology meant to be drawn on either a Head-Up Display (HUD) or a Helmet-Mounted Display (HMD), was conceived using the outcome of this analysis and Ecological Interface Design guidelines. A qualitative evaluation of the symbology seems to show that such an interface would be useful for helicopter applications requiring high agility and most notably quick longitudinal accelerations and decelerations.