The Use of Holographic Head-Up Display of Flight Path Symbology in Varying Weather Conditions

Eleven experienced transport pilots flew a series of instrument and visual approaches in a motion-based 737 training simulator with a holographic head-up display (HUD), a head-down flight path display, and conventional instrumentation underavariety of visual and turbulence conditions.

The objective of this study was to demonstrate and evaluate, under these various environmental and flight conditions, a holographic head-up display that uses an integrated approach to informative presentations through advanced graphic techniques. The results (based on the performance measures, pilot opinion and rating data, and observer data) include the following: (a) HUD resulted in greater precision than either of the other display types when comparing any of the performance measures; (b) the head-down flight path display resulted in consistently better flight performance than the conventional instruments; (c) HUD resulted in significantly more successful approaches when compared to the other displays; (d) the majority of the pilots felt that the workload was lower with the HUD; and (e) all the pilots felt their approaches were better with the HUD.