Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance: Program Overview

This report details the second phase of the Office of Aviation Medicine research program on Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance. This on-going research program enhances human performance in the aviation maintenance system to ensure continuing flight safety and operational efficiency. The research program, as reported in the Phase I report (Shepherd, Johnson, Drury, Taylor, & Berninger, 1991) was initially planned to have 4 steps, with feedback mechanisms as shown in Figure 1. Phase I focused on preliminary investigation and problem definition of human performance in airline maintenance environments. This report describes Phase II research that centers on the development of hardware and software prototypes with potential to enhance human performance in aircraft maintenance. (In this report the activities subsumed under "inspection" are considered to be part of "aircraft maintenance").