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.
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Chapter 4: Future Work
Given the incomplete body of knowledge concerning futuristic propulsion and
maintaining cogn izance of ongoing human-factors research, it is probably premature to
engage in specific research on cockpits for propulsion physics. Instead, more insights
are likely to be gained from relevant physics research. A caveat is that advances in
cockpits for breakthrough flight might be further advanced by taking advantage of the
gaming industry or through science fiction speculation.
Without the actual technology for breakthrough flight, a game simulation or detailed
science fiction show/movie could be used as the context around which to explore such
options. A concern with this approach, however, is that the underlying stories serve the
primary function of enterta inment as opposed to user efficiency. It is conceivable to
encounter a guidance system more intended to create dramatic tension ("wow effect")
than ease of use.
MULTIPLE FLIGHT REGIME GUIDANCE CONVENTIONS
The breakthrough vehicle will operate in regimes for which guidance standards do not
yet exist, specifically orbit insertion and deep-space (interstellar) travel. Although
motion near the surface of a gravitating body can copy the standards of aircraft flight
(primary flight display and terrestrial navigation standards), further work is required to
explore and select the best options for orbit and deep-space flight.
Although it is expected that orbit insertion maneuvers would be handled by an
automated system, the more demanding cond ition to use as a design target is to have
a display system that can guide a pilot to manually enter a stable orbit.
Choosing the convention for the primary axis of deep-space motion will require a trade
study to determine if the natural human instinct for forward-dominated motion offers a
better human-machine interface than the propulsion-dominant option for upward
dominated motion. Such an assessment must also consider how well the convention
works when transitioning from deep-space flight into an orbit, then landing, and then
back again to deep-space flight. Once any convention is set into place, it will be difficult
to change later.
VECTOR MOTION DISPLAY
Once the development of those guidance conventions is further along, a method to
clearly display those conventions for the pilot would have to be developed. A
complication that these future displays will encounter is the need for a seamless
transition between these three conventions: flight above a gravitating body, orbit
insertion, and deep-space flight beyond our solar system.
VECTOR MOTION CONTROL
Adding three linear axes (plus yaw) to the classic two-rotational degree-of-freedom
joystick is a significant change. Although six-degree joysticks are ava ilable
commercially, they are oriented toward computer interfaces rather than commanding
the motion of a vehicle. To determine the optimum configuration for an actual six
degree vehicle control, simulations would likely be required. Perhaps one venue is to
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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.