Studying collision avoidance by nearly colliding: A flight test evaluation

As the next generation of air traffic systems (NextGen) moves forward, human factors analyses related to warnings and graphical depictions of air traffic conflicts become increasingly important. Despite this, related human-factors research involving traffic has been conducted in simulation where the contributions of traffic display systems and ultimately visual detection of traffic cannot be fully assessed. We report a flight trial involving 12 deliberate near miss (as little as 160 ft) configurations of differing intercept angles. We evaluate the workload and track error of the intruder test pilot for flight trials in which a custom iPodTM Automatic Dependent Surveillance- Broadcast (ADS-B)-driven display was used. Constant and variable error of trajectory tracks were differentially affected by the availability of three-dimensional real world information for the intercept approach. We consider the components of spatial representation common to planned interceptions and traffic avoidance and discuss the implications for the design of cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) systems and the role of automation in collision avoidance systems.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye