Human-Centered Design of Flight Mode Annunciation for Instantaneous Mode Awareness

Since the early days of aviation, aircraft design engineers have been using automation to reduce pilot workload and enhance flight safety. While the basic automated systems performed quite simple tasks such as to hold altitude or heading, modern flight guidance and control systems typically have over 20 different modes of operation. The basic philosophy of flight mode annunciation however, did hardly change. It is therefore not surprising that flight crews encounter more and more difficulties to comprehend the active flight mode. In current designs, the active flight mode is typically shown on top of the primary flight display (PFD). A new flight mode annunciation (FMA) concept was investigated using a flight simulator in conjunction with eye-tracking analysis and a questionnaire. The experiment involved 20 participants, aged between 22 and 47 years (M = 27.7, SD = 7). Thereof 12 were qualified pilots and 8 were aerospace engineering professionals. Flight experience reached from 0 to 11000 h (M = 946, SD = 2567). The study showed that the modified display style caused a significant decrease of fixation duration and subjective workload.