Research in a high-fidelity acceleration environment

A description is given of the lightweight cockpit installed in the human centrifuge at the Naval Air Development Center as an approach to creating an acceleration environment similar to tactical aircraft. Its purpose is to provide a testing environment for advanced acceleration protection systems. The centrifuge is capable of very high onset/high sustained accelerations. A pilot in the human centrifuge flies an aircraft simulation to maintain a target aircraft inside the gun pipper of a head-up display. The pilot is in complete control of the centrifuge through the simulation, and, if the target tracking is accomplished successfully, the centrifuge will produce an acceleration profile that matches the target aircraft. The display system is a high-resolution wide-field-of-view computer graphics system that is used to present a real-world gaming area, an aerial target aircraft, and a high-fidelity head-up display. The cockpit is also outfitted with a medium-fidelity head-down display used to aid the subject in locating the target, provide an interactive terminal for G-induced-loss-of-consciousness recovery, and function as a NAVAID device.<>