Towards Single-Pilot Operations in Commercial Aviation: A Human-Centered Perspective
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Beschreibung
Abstract
Due to technological progress, increasingly sophisticated and highly automated systems have replaced human roles in the cockpit of commercial aircraft. Consequently, the crew size has been reduced from initially five to two cockpit crew members over the past decades. Nowadays, a captain and a first officer share the tasks throughout the flight by assuming the roles of pilot flying (PF) and pilot monitoring (PM). However, in light of the ongoing technological advancements, the logical next step seems to be a further ‘de-crewing’ from two-crew operations (TCO) to single-pilot operations (SPO). To provide adequate support for the single pilot, a redesign of the cockpit is required.
The present study contributes to this research area by adopting a human-centered perspective and investigating how the PF is affected by the absence of the PM during commercial SPO. A study was conducted in a fixed-base Airbus A320 flight simulator. Fourteen professional pilots participated. Their task was to fly short approach and landing scenarios at Frankfurt Airport both with and without a PM. A 2x3 factorial within-subject design was used with the factors crew (TCO and SPO) and scenario (baseline, turbulence, and abnormal). A combination of quantitative and qualitative data was collected in the form of subjective workload ratings, eye-tracking data, simulator parameters, video recordings, and debriefing interviews.
The results showed that workload was not generally higher during SPO but particularly the temporal demand increased significantly. Additionally, checklist usage was less consistent and pilots handled the abnormal scenario differently when the PM was absent. The pilots’ scanning behavior was also significantly affected by the absence of the PM. Pilots had to spend considerably more time scanning secondary instruments at the expense of primary instruments. Moreover, transition behavior between the cockpit instruments and the external view was less efficient in SPO and was interpreted in terms of an overload on the pilots’ visual modality.
This research will help inform the design of commercial SPO flight decks providing adequate support for the single pilot. Several implications for the design of SPO cockpits are discussed, such as head-up displays, multisensory interfaces, augmented reality glasses, advanced automation, and additional support from ground operators.
Autor*in
Anja Faulhaber
Themen in »Towards Single-Pilot Operations in Commercial Aviation: A Human-Centered Perspective«
Cockpit-Design Flugsimulatorstudie Human Factors Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion Single-Pilot-Operationen