Putting Four Dimensions in “Perspective” for the Pilot

Abstract

A novel concept for a cockpit decision aid was designed from an analogy with the future cone of the Minkowski “space-time” diagram (Hawking, 1988). For this purpose, a volume of airspace around ownship was theoretically selected and projected in future time. Aircraft flight parameters consisting of three dimensions of space, and one dimension of time, were treated as “events in space-time”. Aircraft shapes depicted all “events” having a probability of occurrence within the pre-defined region of “space-time”, with collision threats marked by vectors. The resulting display provided an ‘out-the-window’ pilot-centric perspective of the predicted situation, demarcated by pre-defined time-intervals. This concept was tested in two experimental studies. Overall results suggest that such a presentation of predictive spatio-temporal air traffic information would likely aid pilot decision-making, especially in a Free Flight (FF) environment.