Spatial Audio Displays for Improving Safety and Enhancing Situation Awareness in General Aviation Environments

Most current displays in general aviation (GA) environments employ, at best, relatively simple audio displays that do not fully exploit the operator’s sensory processing capabilities, and thus may not allow pilots to take full advantage of the available information. This paper describes a series of four experiments conducted in an actual flight environment at the USAF Test Pilot school that evaluate the utility of spatial auditory displays as a navigation aid and an attitude indicator. Performance was measured in tasks that required pilots to fly in the direction of a spatial audio “navigation beacon,” and use an auditory artificial horizon display to detect changes in attitude and maintain straight and level flight when no visual cues were available. The results from these studies indicate that spatial audio displays can effectively be used by pilots for both navigation and attitude monitoring. In addition, because the stimulus employed in the audio horizon display was self-selected music, pilot acceptance was high and it was possible to provide ongoing information to the pilot without the risk of annoyance. Although performance with standard display configurations remains superior, spatial audio displays may be used to supplement these existing displays, and to provide cues when critical information is either obscured or missing, such as in low-visibility conditions or when the pilot’s attention is focused on another task. Thus it appears that spatial audio may be used to support situation awareness and improve overall safety in the general aviation environment.