First question was
"... How do you manage performance on ... aircraft?..."
Next comment:
"... I don't ... understand the relevance ..."
Boeing first certified a "Performance Management System" on the B747 in 1981 [the Delco PMS was the first "box" to coordinate Pitch, Thrust, and Navigation; due to the planned roll-out of B767 with Sperry FMS, the Delco product had been re-named "PMS", reserving the "FMS" label for the newer Sperry product].
For T/O and Landing, Performance Engineers have provided charts & graphs: pilots often use these charts prior to T/O or Landing. For Climb, CRZ, DES, "Performance" Engineers supplied pages and pages of data, for best "performance": LOTS of DATA, for various GWt, Spds, Altitudes, winds, temps, sfc, &ct.
Then, and since, "performance" has never seemed related to Human Factors -- until those HF-guys started the new vocabulary employing the high sounding phrase
"HUMAN PERFORMANCE GROUP"
[maybe "human factors" didn't seem sufficiently scientific].
So, the HF-guys' new usage of the old word "Performance", is as corny as Boeing's suddenly re-christening the Delco Flt Management System.
Last edited by IGh; 26th Feb 2012 at 16:37.