HELICOPTER COMMANDS AT THE TOUCH OF A HAND

The feasibility of presenting flight control information via Kinesthetic-tactual (K-T) displays was investigated for two simulated maneuvers. K-T display indications are given by the relative movement between two basic components -- a hollowed out control handle and an embedded sliding display. Together these two components made up the control handle display units for cyclic and collective command signals. Protrusion of the servo-controlled slide corresponded in direction and magnitude to unwanted tracking errors for either an IFR landing task or a hover maneuver. Results for five subject pilots clearly demonstrated that these selected precision maneuvers could be carried out successfully based solely on the K-T displayed information. These findings combined with previous laboratory work also suggest that task performance with K-T displays can be comparable to performance with conventional visual displays, and that K-T displays can increase secondary visual workload capacity.