Ab Initio Training in the Glass Cockpit Era: New Technology Meets New Pilots: A Preliminary Descriptive Analysis

The Aerospace Department at Middle Tennessee State University and the NASA Langley Research Center entered into a cooperative agreement in 2003. The project is named the SATS Aerospace Flight Education Research (SAFER) and is part of NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) initiative. The SATS project envisions a future flight environment that employs small aircraft to transport people and cargo from point to point using smaller, under utilized airports instead of major gridlocked airports. The aircraft used in the SATS vision would take advantage of a range of emerging technologies including glass cockpits, new structures, and new engines. But with the understanding that the best aircraft and the best systems are still only as good as its operator, MTSU Aerospace set out to explore how pilot training might be different in the SATS environment. The SAFER project therefore takes beginner pilots and completes their initial Visual Flight (VFR) and Instrument Flight (IFR) flight training in technically advanced aircraft to determine how best to educate the next generation of pilots in the next generation of aircraft.