During his time as a test pilot, Prakash analyzed how those and other systems like navigation might be optimized for the operator. The problem extends to the engine gauges, which display engine pressure ratio (EPR), fuel flow, exhaust gas temperature, revolutions per minute (RPM), and oil pressure. “Moreover, the gauges and instruments are not even consistent between the left and right pilots’ seats, so you have to do a different cross check depending on which seat you’re in.” “The instrument clusters are not designed in the most efficient way for a pilot to do a cross check,” Prakash said. But the way the B-52 cockpit is laid out can cost precious half-seconds or quarter-seconds. Time is of the essence, especially during a delicate procedure like landing at night or in inclement weather. “Whether it’s the engine instruments or the navigation instruments, they are all designed to fit compactly in the space there, but they are not designed to be easy to use,” he said.įor example, pilots routinely perform cross-checks, where they rapidly check their airspeed indicator, vertical velocity indicator, bank angle, and other instruments in order to make a decision. The concept of human systems integration, where systems are adapted to the operator rather than vice versa, did not exist when the B-52 cockpit was first designed in the late 1940s, Dave Prakash, a former B-52 operational test pilot and flight surgeon, told Air & Space Forces Magazine A B-52 Stratofortress test pilot operates a flight simulator while using one of three new flight instrumentation prototype gauge clusters at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
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