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.
“The Advance”12 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'FOR OFFI@IAI:: ~SE OPtl::Y Both side panels are deliberately not in the tunnel vision zone, since they provide add it iona l functions that are less time critical. Each side panel is a mix of fixed and adaptive displays. The convention is that the panel on the left (consistent with the navigation panel on the left) is for displays and controls related to the envi ronment outside the craft, while the panel on the right is associated with the function of the craft itself. Only some of the sensors and functions are known at this time, and it is expected that fu rther advances in sensor technology might provide other abilities that are not yet foreseeable . Following the requirements from Chapter 1, this panel will at least have controls for the fol lowing : • External visible spectrum cameras that provide input to the virtual surround display . • Augmented spectrum cameras (e.g., infrared or ultraviolet). • Star tracker. • Cosmic microwave background sensors. • Inertial sensors and their related integrations for velocity and position. • Object detection and trajectory determination. Internal Conditions Panel The right panel flanking the pilot seat has more detailed displays and controls regarding the vehicle's functions, such as energy, propulsion, and computation. Similar to the left side panel, it is a mix of fixed and adaptive displays. This panel provides deeper levels of detail for the elements displayed on the vehicle status panel, along with control settings for the same. The functions of this panel are closely integrated with the flight-assist system, especially in regard to recommending corrective actions to vehicle malfunctions. Absent the technology for the vehicle's breakthrough propulsion and power systems, further details of this panel cannot be suggested at this time. Periphery Motion Displays The last two physical panels are the periphery motion displays, which are located on either side of the cockpit in the pilot's periphery vision. They are a physical back-up to the virtual surround display, where each offers more intense moving grid lines. The panels simply display a grid whose motion is synced with the motion of the craft relative to the surrounding space. In this way, the pilot gets subtle cues to motions that can be mentally processed in parallel with the other displays. Such an additional motion display is expected to become necessary because of the added degrees of freedom available for the vehicle's motion. This can be particularly useful during hover, UNCLASSIFIED/,<FOA. OFFICIO ls Plili ONI.¥ 39
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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.