Flight Test Evaluation of Synthetic and Peripheral Vision Displays in General Aviation

Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of accidents in general aviation (GA) and is a phenomenon that develops in a matter of seconds rather than minutes or hours. With instrumentation currently present in GA aircraft, during times of low visibility the pilot's awareness of his surroundings through visual, vestibular, and muscular cues can be misleading and may cause the pilot to put the aircraft inadvertently in an unusual attitude. This paper discusses the evaluation of a prototype synthetic and peripheral vision display system