Evaluation of Cockpit Design

Evaluation of cockpit design is the main theme of this book. The flight deck is the ultimate human-machine interface application. It uses human senses of touch and sight in a safety-critical situation. Cockpit displays and the controls are sophisticated human machine interface applications. Display systems, present at cockpits are complex environments causing excessive mental workload and the consequences of errors can be catastrophic. Human errors can only be prevented by user-friendly cockpit design. In this book, reach compatibilities to controls in the cockpit are evaluated and then suitable positions of indicators at front display panel are examined to obtain a user-friendly cockpit design. Human anthropometry is the most significant factor while evaluating cockpit reach compatibilities to controls; so all critical operational reach parameters of pilots are examined. The anthropometric study revealed vision problems and showed that the height of display panel is inappropriate for most pilots. Accordingly, suitable positions of the indicators on pedestal are evaluated and determined by using different techniques from human factors point of view.