Design of Revising Proximity between Space and Time Cues on Flight Deck Displays to Support NextGen – The First Phase

The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate novel display formats to support RTA operations for near to midterm NextGen. Traditional cockpit displays separate space and time information in distant display sources in heterogeneous formats (graphics vs. text). This design composition may cause potential pilot errors when required time of arrival (RTA) obligations are imposed at every waypoint in NextGen. Pilots were randomly assigned to four different display conditions in a simulator – one traditional display with distant space and time cues, and three novel displays with close spatial proximity between the two cues. In the first phase of the experiment for this paper, pilots firstly participated in query tests answering space/time statuses during autopilot RTA flights. The novel displays did not degrade pilots’ situation awareness of space-time as an objective measure. For subjective measure, their situation awareness was significantly higher when the space and time cues were integrated into a single display with graphical temporal conformance indicators. The close spatial proximity between space and time cues and the support of graphical temporal conformance indicator showed a promise for improved RTA navigation