VISUAL DETECTION OF AIRCRAFT IN MID-AIR COLLISION SITUATIONS

When two aircraft are physically oriented so that continuation on their individual flight plans will result in collision, the final decision of the pilots to take avoiding action is most often based upon visual detection of the other aircraft. Considerable laboratory experimentation has been conducted and reported on the various aspects of visual detection as has much been written about the general theory of computing visual detection probabilities. This thesis is concerned with correlation of a portion of these laboratory results with detection theory into an analytical model for the computation of range at which an aircraft will be detected with a given probability for a stated set of meteorological conditions. The theoretical model is first developed for the case of a lookout or observer riding in the aircraft with no other duties than to perform visual searching. Consideration is then given to the case of the pilot who must distribute his available time between visual searching and in-cockpit operation of his aircraft.