Cockpit

A New York Times bestseller For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the popular website www.askthepilot.com, separates fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know: • How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them • Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety. • The real story on delays, congestion, and the dysfunction of the modern airport • The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation • Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security • Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service • The colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate COCKPIT CONFIDENTIAL covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying, but the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It's a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying. "Patrick Smith is extraordinarily knowledgeable about modern aviation...the ideal seatmate, a companion, writer and explorer." —Boston Globe "Anyone remotely afraid of flying should read this book, as should anyone who appreciates good writing and great information." —The New York Times, on ASK THE PILOT.

Cockpit Engineering provides an understandable introduction to cockpit systems and a reference to current concepts and research. The emphasis throughout is on the cockpit as a totality, and the book is accordingly comprehensive. The first chapter is an overview of how the modern cockpit has evolved to protect the crew and enable them to do their job. The importance of psychological and physiological factors is made clear in the following two chapters that summarise the expectable abilities of aircrew and the hazards of the airborne environment. The fourth chapter describes the stages employed in the design of a modern crewstation and the complications that have been induced by automated avionic systems. The subsequent chapters review the component systems and the technologies that are utilized. Descriptions of equipment for external vision - primarily the windscreen, canopy and night-vision systems - are followed by pneumatic, inertial and electro-mechanical instruments and the considerations entailed in laying out a suite of displays and arranging night-lighting. Separate chapters cover display technology, head-up displays, helmet-mounted displays, controls (including novel controls that respond directly to speech and the activity of the head, eye and brain), auditory displays, emergency escape, and the complex layers of clothing and headgear. The last chapter gives the author's speculative views on ideas and research that could profoundly alter the form of the crewstation and the role of the crew. Although the focus of the book is on combat aircraft, which present the greatest engineering and ergonomic challenges, Cockpit Engineering is written for professional engineers and scientists involved in aerospace research, manufacture and procurement; and for aircrew, both civil and military - particularly during training. It will also be of great interest to university students specialising in aerospace, mechanical and electronic engineering, and to professional engineers and scientists in the marine, automotive and related industries.

While monitoring of computer-controlled systems is widespread, it is critically important in the cockpit of current passenger aircraft. Such monitoring requires special vigilance for those rare untoward events, which may be new to the pilot and which can have devastating consequences. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to address this problem of sustaining attention while monitoring. It outlines and explains alternative ways of viewing the processes needed to prevent Human Factors accidents; it examines the use and limitations of cockpit resource management programmes in inducing behavioural and attitudinal changes appropriate for highly automated flight decks. The author’s approach deals rigorously with the physiological mechanisms underlying vigilance, arousal and stress, delineating clearly those that are relevant to the monitoring function. The three parts cover: monitoring problems and processes; monitoring measurement and alerting systems; and monitoring management. In the last part the author details management plans and guidance for monitoring assisted systems based on his understanding of the problems of continued human vigilance. Readership: pilots and training pilots; cockpit resource management groups; monitoring management specialists; university aviation departments; road and rail transport groups; those operating nuclear and large process installations.

Cockpit Displays is an in-depth examination of the design rationales, test philosophy and test procedures for cockpit systems. Whilst its main emphasis is on cockpit displays, it also includes an important discussion of flight management systems and mission computers. Areas covered include: the cockpit design process, test techniques for flight displays and equipment, and situation awareness testing. Comparing civil and military requirements, it is an important analysis of the lessons learned from test and evaluation and will be of interest to cockpit systems design engineering staff at major airframe manufacturers, procurement executives and program managers at military aircraft program offices and flight test engineers and test pilots.

Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) has gained increased attention from the airline industry in recent years due to the growing number of accidents and near misses in airline traffic. This book, authored by the first generation of CRM experts, is the first comprehensive work on CRM. Cockpit Resource Management is a far-reaching discussion of crew coordination, communication, and resources from both within and without the cockpit. A valuable resource for commercialand military airline training curriculum, the book is also a valuable reference for business professionals who are interested in effective communication among interactive personnel. Key Features * Discusses international and cultural aspects of CRM * Examines the design and implementation of Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) * Explains CRM, LOFT, and cockpit automation * Provides a case history of CRM training which improved flight safety for a major airline