Affiliations: Flight Motion Effects Branch, Crew Technology Division, Crew Systems Directorate, Armstrong Laboratory, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas
Note: [*] Reprint address: Kent K. Gillingham, MD, PhD, AL/CFTF, Brooks Air Force Base, TX 78235-5000.
Abstract: Spatial disorientation (SD) in flight wastes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense capability annually and continues to kill aircrew. SD results primarily from inadequacies of human visual and vestibular sensory systems in the flying environment; but other factors, such as task saturation and distraction, precipitate it. The United States Air Force is conducting a three-pronged research and development effort to solve the SD problem. We are attempting 1) to elucidate further the mechanisms of visual and vestibular orientation and disorientation, 2) to develop ground-based and inflight training methods for demonstrating to pilots the potential for SD and the means of coping with it, and 3) to conceive and evaluate new ways to display flight control and performance information so that pilots can maintain accurate spatial orientation.
Keywords: spatial disorientation, disorientation, spatial orientation, pilot vertigo
