An Information-Centered Analysis of the Tunnel-in-the-Sky Display, Part One: Straight Tunnel Trajectories

The tunnel-in-the-sky display has the potential to become the primary flight display of future aircraft. To understand pilot interaction with a perspective tunnel display and to benefit from this understanding in display design, it is essential to investigate the manner in which pilots use the presented information. A theoretical information-centered analysis is described that studies the effectiveness of the information presented by the tunnel display in the pilot task of controlling an aircraft along straight trajectories. It is shown that in straight tunnel sections, the concept of using the optical gradients of perspective and compression in conjunction with pseudohorizons and the vanishing point is very useful in understanding pilot behavior. Results from a simulator experiment validate the concept and confirm the effectiveness of following an information-centered methodology in tunnel display design.