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 QptLY Copying the general organization of the other major panels, this tall and narrow enunciator is divided into three sections: • External Alarms (Upper Left): Alarm indicators corresponding to the most life threatening conditions (limit of 4 to 10) that could occur external to the vehicle, such as impending collisions, hazardous radiation, or other critical situations. • Vehicle Alarms (Upper Right): Alarm indicators corresponding to the most life threatening conditions (limit of 4 to 10) that could occur internally from the vehicle itself, such as catastrophic equipment malfunctions. • Cabin Alarms (Bottom): Alarm indicators corresponding to the most life threatening conditions of the cabin's life support (limit of 4 to 10), such as loss of air pressure, excessive internal g's, temperature extremes, or pilot health conditions. Emergency Response Panel The narrow vertical panel between the center and right panel is the emergency response panel: a fixed series of buttons for preprogrammed emergency responses, including at least one variable button tied to the recommendations on the flight assist display. These are deliberately set into the tunnel vision field of view. Each of these responses is programmed to perform without needing additional inputs from the pilot. A provisional set of these preprogrammed emergency response buttons is as follows: • Evasive collision avoidance. • Escape to safe loiter position. • Get medical assistance. • Effect automated repair. • Return to base. • Flight-assist recommendation. One of the emergency response panel buttons is to select whatever response option is currently displayed on the assistant panel, while the other emergency response buttons are fixed functions. Flight-Mode Panel Because selecting any of these emergency responses will change the flight mode into "fully autonomous" mode, the flight-mode panel is between the emergency response panel and the survival enunciator. Because the fl ight mode is a critical piece of information, it is also located between the vector motion display and the vehicle status panel. In aircraft, the flight-mode controls are often on the glare shield, but in the breakthrough-era craft, there will not be a need for a glare shield. The light in the cabin is only from the display systems whose brightness can be set to prevent glare on the consoles. UNCLASSIFIED/fFOA: OFFICIO la Plili Oralla¥ 37
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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.