Man Machine Interface Requirement Validation in Military Aircraft Certification 2009-01-3112

Increasing electronic controls in aircraft flight deck, especially in military aircrafts, demands special attention from crew workload assessment and human error analysis point of view. The main objective for the Authority is to validate that the crew workload is adequate for different and complicated military missions. Besides, human error analysis is a regulatory requirement in Airworthiness Certification of airplanes. Human errors need to be observed during simulated operational use of novelties and analyzed later (during the debriefing with pilots or during the results analysis). The main objective during the debriefing is to identify their causes, their consequence, their criticality and the current safety barriers in terms of human errors management.

Simulators offer wide range of capability to identify the problems in early stages of the design. Degree of fidelity needed on evaluation media is related with the complexity of the military mission and project budget. Especially in modernization projects where full flight simulators are not available and does not worth to build a new one, step by step approach is needed from nonfunctional static mock-ups to functional simulation with final equipments and functional software. This paper represents recommended acceptance criteria for Military Airworthiness Authority for Man Machine Interface requirements in military modernization projects. A transport category aircraft avionic modernization project, a fighter avionic modernization project and a rotorcraft modernization projects are selected as sample projects. A scenario based methodology has been proposed for evaluation, specific military rare event cases are discussed to include in these scenarios. Additionally, aggravating factors for military environment, such as sustained g, night vision goggle operation etc. are discussed. Simulator requirements are classified for different stages of evaluation.