AAWSAP DIRD, Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, November 2010

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 1 November 2010 and numbered DIA-08-1011-002, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. It draws mainly on the book Frontiers of Propulsion Science and speculates about breakthroughs such as control of gravity and inertia and faster-than-light travel. It then proposes a provisional cockpit design with six-degree-of-freedom controls, virtual displays and no windows.

From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 11/1/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD examines how cockpit design might change if future aerospace vehicles were ever to achieve major propulsion breakthroughs such as control over gravity and inertia, “propellantless” flight, or faster-than-light travel. The report does not describe an existing or emerging vehicle class. Instead, it asks what such hypothetical capabilities would mean for piloting, displays, controls, and human factors, and it argues that the biggest design challenges would come from full six-degree-of-freedom motion, operation across multiple flight regimes from near-surface flight to orbit and deep space, and the possible separation between the craft’s actual motion and the crew’s internal physical sensations. It combines those assumptions with established human-machine-interface principles and with maturing inputs such as gesture, voice, and brain-machine control to outline a provisional cockpit centered on intuitive displays, stress-tolerant physical controls, and a virtual surround display.

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Fields of View
There is a difference between what humans are physically capable of seeing and where
they naturally concentrate their attention. Using a reference point that is stra ight
ahead and level with the eyes, the normal full field of view extends laterally (left/right)
±100°, upward about +60°, and downward about -75°. Of course, turning the head
can extend the lateral reach directly behind, but that rearward view would be in the
edge of periphery vision. This full span, however, is not where humans normally direct
their attention.
With the head in a fixed position, the normal field of view spans left/right ±100°. The
periphery is most sensitive to motion even when discrete images cannot be resolved.
The region shown that spans roughly ±60° is the area that can be easily scanned by
moving the eyes and whose information can be mentally processed in parallel. A much
narrower field, about ±6 °, is where humans can discern details and begin processing
information serially. This zone can be aimed anywhere in the normal field of view.
Finally, the region of focus where alphanumerics can be read is only about ±2°, which
corresponds to only one square inch at a distance of 2 feet. Another characteristic of
human vision is the tendency to fixate in the upper right corner of a given display. In
the figure insert, the percentages shown refer to the proportion of total time that the
eye tends to fixate on those regions.
Figure 9. Human Fields of View. [Graphic: A. Sza mes]
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