Aircrew and Avionics - Friends or Foes?

Man has evolved as a creature intended to walk on two feet on the surface of the earth, but he has acquired the skills necessary for the construction of machines which enable him to fly above the earth and dive below the surface of the oceans. His skill in the operation of flying machines has been augmented by the development of sensing and display devices which are capable of giving him a more accurate percept of the situation in which he is operating than his own senses are able to provide. Proliferation of these devices has led to a situation where the complexities of the visual task of acquiring essential information form large numbers of displays, and of providing inputs to the system through large members of controllers, are only marginally acceptable. Means are now becoming available to ease this situation such equipment as multi-function displays and controllers, and facilities such as direct voice input, and speech output, are all potentially capable of reducing the pilots workload and making him a more efficient part of the overall system.