Aiding Navy helicopter aircrews in handling mechanical fault emergencies

This paper presents an overview of a research program which is investigating how to generate and present information to Navy helicopter aircrews to help them handle mechanical problems in-flight. This work seeks to provide a mechanism for alerting aircrews to problems that are identified and potentially diagnosed by a Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS). HUMS alerting is combined with a concept for an interactive, electronic flight manual to produce a complete aircrew aiding system. Since the basis for the flight manual information is the Navy's NATOPS, the system is designated as Interactive Electronic NATOPS (IE-NATOPS). A prototype design, which will be presented, is planned for implementation on an electronic kneeboard device with aircraft 1553 bus connection to the Warning Caution and Advisory (WCA) cockpit alerting display and HUMS. Aircrew information requirements for HUMS-based aiding have been investigated through two studies that were conducted in a Navy H-46 simulator. The first study addressed aircrew performance in a baseline aircraft with no aiding. The second study examined performance with a hypothetical (scripted) aid which provided information in the categories of problem identification, diagnosis, confirmation, and action recommendation. Aircrew performance and preferences in using these various categories of information were studied. Results of both of these studies will be summarized. Human factors design issues will be discussed, focusing primarily on the cognitive issues of information characteristics. Implementation issues will also be addressed, including document information management, aircrew interface, and aircrew training implications.