Evaluation of Several TV Display System Configurations for Visual Simulation of the Landing Approach

A study has been conducted to determine the effects of several variations of two types of visual display systems on subjective pilot evaluations and objective measures of performance in the landing approach. Two types of flight approaches were made with either a projector or collimatmoed nitor visual display: 1) the instrument approach, and 2) the visual approach without the nonmal cockpit instrumentation assistance. The variables examined were color, differences between displays due to collimation, and reduced resolution. The use of color had two main effects on pilot performance in the landing approach. The touchdown distance and standard deviations increased more for the monitor displays, and the touchdown rates of descent were slightly lower. With collimation, the standard deviations of touchdown distance increased, and the rate-of-descent standard deviations decreased in a direction more favorable with the actual flight data. The time outside the glide-slope error limits was less with the monitor display, and the lateral localizer error was smaller for the projector display, because the pilots intercepted the runway center line at a greater distance from the threshold. With reduced resolution, there was a slight change in the touchdown distance and the standard deviation; for the flights made without color, the landings were predominantly to the right of the runway center line with twice the standard deviation. The pilots were more critical of the black and white variation for either display, and favored more use of a color system.