Documents / Official release
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.
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'FOR OFFI@IAL WSE ONLY Peripheral Vision Peripheral vision has been used with some success to display rates of change and artificial horizons in aircraft. Evidence indicates that peripheral vision can process spatial information in parallel without appreciable mental attention. Also, evidence indicates that peripheral spatial cues (e.g., artificial horizon laser trace) may still be subconsciously processed during stress-induced tunnel vision, even though the pilot is no longer consciously noticing it. 26 Attention In the absence of stimuli, visual attention is spread evenly across the full field of view, and that information is processed subconsciously in parallel. But in the event of motion or noise, visual attention aims toward those changes, and then that information is processed serially. In t he context of cockpits, this means that all the panels and windows that are normally in the field of view are processed subconsciously in parallel, and a change in any one of those will be noticed, thus drawing attention to that change. Once attention has been triggered, the information is processed more serially. Blinking lig hts are a common way to draw attention. Sound can also be used, and the combination of sound and lig hts is common ly used in malfunction enunciator panels. It is possible, however, to saturate the pilot with too many blinking lights and sounds. Although firm values are not established, it is recommended to keep such functions to a minimum-preferably tied to the highest-priority status indications. Another method to draw the attention is through physical feeling. Vibrations or a change in feel of the vehicle will get the attention of the pilot, and with experience, the correlation between physical sensations and the status of the vehicle can become second nature. Historica lly, there are many instances where the pilots were innately able to sense changes in operating condition of the vehicle just through feel. In addition to naturally created sensations, having deliberate vibrations built into t he seat is another option for sending information to the pilot. Force-feedback controls have also been found helpful, where the degree of resistance or vibration fed back through a control (e.g., joystick and peda ls) provides interpretable information that can be mentally processed in parallel. Upon the advent of control over gravitational and inertial forces, it will likely become possible to deliberately provide the pilot with vestibular cues-mimicking inertial accelerations in association with the external conditions, but at survivable levels. DESIGN FOR STRESS The most important time for the pilot-machine interface to work optimally is in moments of crisis. Thus, as a starting point for cockpit design, it is best to focus on the highest-priority information and controls and to present those displays and controls in a manner that accommodates human norms during stress. 27 Accordingly, this section covers human limits and errors and advice for providing alarms and response options. UNCLASSIFIED/ fFOA. OFFICIO Is. flili Ol'lls.¥ 21
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 57 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.