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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Interactive Assist
This is a further automated augmentation of the prior flight mode. In th is case,
fo llowing commands from the pilot (voice, gesture, or thought), the pilot can request
for the flight assistant to fly the veh icle as desired. In this mode, it is most likely that
the pi lot wi ll not be touching the joysticks, but rather issuing "drive to" commands to
the automated system .
Fully Autonomous
In the event that t he pilot is incapacitated or performing non-flight tasks, the fully
auto nomous mode flies the veh icle in whatever flight command mode was last entered.
Th is means that the system follows t hrough with previously entered comma nds,
in clud ing a selection of preset emergency responses, such as "returning to base" or
"flying to t he nearest med ical facil ity." These emergency response fu nctions may have
a dedicated physical panel.
PHYSICAL DISPLAYS
In keeping with human-factors lessons, particularly the use of physical analogies of
human perception, the critica l displays and controls will be anchored in physical
hardware in fixed locations. The primary reason for providing an actua l physical set of
displays and controls is to minimize errors during stressful situations. Thi s includes
tunnel vision, mode errors, and keyho le errors. The controls also include tactile
feedback.
Fo llowing the precedents of modern fl ight decks and human-factors lessons, each of the
panels will have a dominant fu nction as identified in Figure 14. Although t he look and
fee l of these panels has not yet been conjectured, t heir likely functions and features
can be estimated.
Vector Motion Flight Assist
Navigation Displays E Interactive
Display E R Display
Survival Emergency
Flight ModeEnunciator Response
Cabin Comm.
Control ControlVehicle Status
External Pullout Internal
Sensing ConditionsKeyboard
Dual Six-Degree Joysticks
Figure 14. Functional Designation of Physical Cockpit Panels. Basic layout of the physical displays and
controls . The function of each is described in the text. [Credit: M. Millis]
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