Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:35:12.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Visual Judgments in Motion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

E. S. Calvert
Affiliation:
(Royal Aircraft Establishment)

Extract

Introduction. The judgments discussed in this paper are mainly those which the pilot of an aircraft has to make in order to land. Some of these, as, for instance, the judgment of alignment, are similar to those made by the driver of a moving surface vehicle, but some, as, for instance, the judgment of approach slope, are peculiar to the pilot, and are very much more difficult. The main difficulties of the pilot arise, however, from the fact that an aircraft has six degrees of freedom and is controllable about all three axes, whereas the surface vehicle has only three degrees of freedom and is controllable only about the vertical axis. In bad visibility these extra freedoms confuse the visual indications in ways of which the person who has only driven a surface vehicle has no conception. The result of this has been that until recently most of the engineers concerned in the layout of airports have not realized that pilots have special difficulties; while the pilots, not having studied visual psychology and perspective, have been unable to analyse these difficulties, or even explain them in terms intelligible to the engineers. In this country, we have been able to find methods of bridging the gap, and enabling both parties to talk the same language. The practical result of this can be seen at London Airport.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Calvert, E. S. (1948). Visual aids for low visibility conditions. A discussion of the fundamental requirements, with a brief account of some results obtained on the R.A.E. simulator. J. R. aero. Soc., 52, 439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Calvert, E. S. (1950). Visual aids for landing in bad visibility, with particular reference to the transition from instrument to visual flight. Trans. Illum. Engng. Soc., 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Mercer, J. F. W. (1954). A quantitative study of instrument approach. J. R. aero. Soc., 58, 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 The incidence of overshoots among aircraft using GCA at London Airport. D.N.S.C.N. Paper No. 1. Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation.Google Scholar
5 A study in approach success. Sperry Gyroscope Co. Report No. 5254–4047 (May 1952).Google Scholar
6 Runway and taxiway marking. C.A.A. Technical Standard Order N.10a (April 1953).Google Scholar