Effects of Field-of-View Sizes on Pop-Up Weapons Delivery

Abstract : It is commonly believed that flight simulators of supporting tactical combat tasks should possess full-field-of-view visual displays with high levels of brightness and resolution. The problem of designing such a visual system is that the three factors (field-of-view, brightness, resolution) are not independent. For instance, as field-of-view (FOV) is increased, brightness and resolution decrease. An attempt to overcome this dilemma uses head-driven visual displays with instantaneous limited-FOV sizes. Head-driven systems overcome the full-FOV problem by providing a full field of regard for the head-driven instantaneous FOV. Important considerations for head-driven instantaneous systems are the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) dimensions of the instantaneous FOV. The present research examines the effect of the instantaneous FOV size on pilots' ability to perform pop-up weapons deliveries using both stationary and head-driven visual displays. An A-10 dodecahedron simulator configured with a 7- window color light valve display, computer-generated imagery, and a Polhemus magnetic head-tracker provided the cockpit and display apparatus. Aircraft performance measures (altitude, airspeed, etc.), head position data, and bomb miss distance were the dependent measures. Ten F-5 instructor pilots served as subjects for the experiment and flew all combinations of FOV sizes and display types from five initial points.