Development of a Horizontal Collision Avoidance Display to Support Pilots’ Self-Separation in a Free Flight Environment

In a Free Flight Environment, managing separation between aircraft is delegated to the pilot by Air Traffic Management. The future adoption of a Free Flight Environment is necessary, as Air Traffic Controllers will be unable to handle the workload from the forecasted doubling of air traffic within two decades. The responsibility of pilots will expand to include a new set of cognitive demands associated with separation tasks. In managing separation, pilots adjust speed and direction of their aircraft within specified constraint boundaries. An Ecological Interface Design approach has been used to design a novel collision avoidance display to support pilots as they visually evaluate their constraints and implement manoeuvres to avoid air conflict, as compared to conventional approaches. The novel airborne display makes full use of a relative motion and protective cone display to bring these constraints to view as flight progresses. The interactive nature of these displays enables pilots to improve situation awareness and reduce cognitive workload. This paper describes the development and evaluation of the novel collision avoidance display.