A Technical Analysis Of Ergonomics And Human Factors In Modern Flight Deck Design

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flights, where a barometer was used to measure altitude. The Wright
brothers incorporated a string attached to the aircraft to indicate slips and
skids (Hawkins, 241). However, the first real efforts towards human factors
implementation in cockpit design began in the early 1930's. During this time,
the United States Postal Service began flying aircraft in all-weather missions
(Kane, 4:9). The greater reliance on instrumentation raised the question of
where to put each display and control. However, not much attention was being
focused on this area as engineers cared more about getting the instrument in the
cockpit, than about how it would interface with the pilot (Sanders & McCormick,
739).
In the mid- to late 1930's, the development of the first gyroscopic
instruments forced engineers to make their first major human factors-related
decision. Rudimentary situation indicators raised concern about whether the
displays should reflect the view as seen from inside the ...

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of aircraft after the dawn of the jet age brought with it a greater
need than ever for automation that exceeded a simple autopilot. Human factors
studies in other industries, and within the military paved the way for some of
the most recent technological innovations such as the glass cockpit, Heads Up
Display (HUD), and other advanced panel displays. Although these systems are on
the cutting edge of technology, they too are susceptible to design problems,
some of which are responsible for the incidents and accidents mentioned earlier.
They will be discussed in further detail in another chapter (Hawkins, 249-54).

III. System Design
A design team should support the concept that ...

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