An Airplane Performance Control System: A Flight Experiment

Abstract

Pilot performance and preference measures were obtained for 12 pilots inactual flight operations using a twin–engine general aviation aircraft withboth conventional controls and a Performance Control System (PCS). The PCS provides zero–order control of aircraft bank angle and vertical speed over the ranges of ±60° and ±457.2 m/min, respectively. An information–processing side–task was also used. With the PCS, flight error scores were reliably lower than with conventional aircraft controls. Pilot preferences, using a six–point scale, ranging from “slight” to “moderate”to “strong”preference for each of the two control systems, showed a “moderate preference for the PCS”as the median response.