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 where careful changes in position are required that are difficult to infer from just looking at external landmarks. VIRTUAL SURROUND DISPLAY Responding to the likelihood that direct visual contact to the outside environment will not be available, images of the outside will have to be relayed to the pilot via exterior cameras and interior displays. Taking advantage of foreseeable advances, such images are likely to be in the form of virtual displays. This also allows the most critical motion and orientation cues, along with augmented reality functions, to be superimposed on these images. At this point, the method of virtual display is not important (e.g., helmet mounted, projected on screen, or contact lens). The issues addressed here discuss what is required rather than the details of how those functions are provided. Exterior Visuals Since direct visual contact to the outside environment will not be available, images of the outside will have to be relayed to the pilot. A system of cameras that can see the external environment are required, plus whatever processing is required to seamlessly merge these images for projection on the virtual surround display. Additionally, it would be advantageous to be able to focus in on and magnify the view of any particular area of the display. Points of Interest Taking advantage of the technology for augmented reality, 50 where objects of interest can be highlighted on a display, this function will be included in the virtual surround display to flag such things as points of interest, objects, and the trajectories of objects. Overlays Ideally, it would be advantageous to be able to superimpose false-color images representing light spectra beyond normal human perception, such as infrared or ultraviolet light. Data Call Up With such a large projection area available, physical panels can also be projected onto manipulated with gesture-based commands. techniques of visual information display.51 any the This feature of the adaptive displays from the virtual surround display and then can employ ever-evolving Sound Augmentation Audio cues shall be included so that the location of objects of interest and alarm states can be spatially inferred, and redundant information to their locations can be projected by visual displays. In addition, the vehicle's flight-assist system can speak information to the pilot. Techniques of using different sounds, as well as the manipulation of a given sound (i.e., changing the repetition rate of a given beeping tone), will be used. UNCLASSIFIED/fFOA: OFFICIO la Plili Oralla¥ 40
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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.