Darmesh, before I start picking apart what you've said, please don't take any criticism personally. Just to state what makes me feel I can criticise, I'm a chartered aeronautical engineer, have a PhD in airworthiness, 15 years test flying experience, am a specialist referee for both the "Journal of Aerospace Engineering" and "Aeronautical Journal of the RAeS". Oh yes, and I've logged 93 types as operating crew, and given the occasional university lecture on aircraft design and certification.
Now, rolling my sleeves up...
Hi guys, could not stop myself from joining this thread.
Well being a student researcher in the field of situational awareness domain, I have to say that SA is not only confined to military pilots nowadays,
Firstly, I think that you've picked a very worthwhile area to research - there's a lot of useful work to be done. Also, do keep engaged in Pprune, we could do with a few more academics in the melting pot.
I think that what you probably mean is that SA research is not confined to military applications. In practice, the issue of SA, and the teaching of how to maintain it goes back to the early days of WW2 to my certain knowledge if not earlier - the oldest reference I've ever seen to it's practice is in Guy Gibson's "Enemy Coast Ahead". It may have originated in the military environment, but has been a serious subject in civil flying for nearly as long.
as there has been some research going on in commercial flights as well and there have been new technologies like highway-in-sky that provide guidance information on external displays within avionics displays.
Technology is only here to enhance the ability of pilots and enhance their human capabilities beyond their physiological limits. As far as I know, situational awareness does not need any training; the burden is put on technology rather than the pilot.
You've rather contradicted yourself here, and I agree with your first statement and disagree strongly with the second. SA, with regard to being aware of what is going on around you is an essential part of the training of all cockpit aircrew (which nowadays primarily means pilots, but may well include navigators, WSOs, helicopter crewmen and so-on.) Whilst it may not be named as a specific subject in many syllabi, it is nonetheless an important part of the training of all of us. It also necessarily includes air traffickers in their various guises.
Designing for pilot situational awareness is designing towards their goals which are often dynamic, that is change over time. I do not have any piloting experience but situational awareness is designed so that the time and avionics complexity pressure is lessened on them, according to other researches and reports.
Crew will source information from many directions to enhance their mental SA model. This may include visual (most of the time) , Radar (if so fitted), Radio (listening to other transmissions, plus traffic information passed to them), expectations (knowing how another aircraft is likely to have behaved since it's position was last known), JTIDS (for the military), TCAS/TPAS, radalt, use of charts and so on. The big issue is not what information is available, it is how it can be presented and fused together.
I can only say one thing, avionics displays are bringing much improvement to flying be it military or commercial flights. Embracing them will only ensure flight safety and effectiveness.
This I'm afraid is somewhere that I think you are potentially very very wrong. A great many modern cockpits, particularly in a GA environment are an ergonomic nightmare and aircrew are often at great risk of SA being degraded due to information overload.
Two major things are needed to counter this. Firstly it is (in the more modern cockpits) the maximum possible use of data-fusion methods, reducing the display to the simplest possible. Secondly it is the specific training of aircrew to absorb, filter, and use data to create an effective mental model of what's going on around them WITHOUT degrading their ability to perform other flying tasks.
So, technology is only part of the solution, and it can very often be the problem.
By the way, I am doing a research and I do lack some pilot information in my research. So if anyone wants to help, please give me a shout as I would really apppreciate any help from you guys out here be it military pilots or commercial pilots.
If you would like to know more about the technologies being developed for future aircrafts, gimme a shout.
Hope this helps.
Firstly I wonder if you can work out how I now know you aren't a native speaker of English
Secondly, and I speak as somebody familiar with university level aeronautical research YOU HAVE GOT TO GET YOURSELF INTO THE AIRBORNE ENVIRONMENT. Cadge lifts in local flying club light aircraft, see if you can get a concession to jump-ride on some military or civil airliner flights, even join a local gliding club. You will never properly understand the subject you are studying unless you immerse yourself in it properly. Also, spend some quality time sat looking over an airfield controllers shoulder somewhere.
If you don't, you may well pass your PhD, you may even get an academic post on the back of it. But, I'm afraid that to those of us in the "real world" your work will be worthless.
G