Aircraft Alerting Systems Criteria Study. Volume 1. Collation and Analysis of Aircraft Alerting Systems Data

Several recent studies, performed to develop optimum alerting methods for new alerts that had to be retrofitted to existing aircraft, identified as major alerting system problems the proliferation of alerting systems and the inconsistent application of alerting concepts in current commercial transport aircraft. The objective of this study was to address these problem areas in the following manner: refine and augment the stimuli response data collected under the previous studies, provide test plans for additional stimuli response tests required to complete the stimuli response data base, provide tabulations of the alerting methods and alerting requirements used on current commercial transport aircraft, develop a method for prioritizing alerting functions and prioritizing the alerting functions accordingly, note conflicts between current alerting requirements and the prioritized lists of alerts, and provide recommendations for standardization of alerting functions/methods. The output includes a collation of human factors data pertinent to alerting systems, cursory test plans for obtaining missing human factors data required to complete definition of and validate the standards recommended for alerting systems, criteria for alert priority levels, an example tabulation of alerts that might fall within each priority level, and recommended methods of annunciating the alerts within each priority level.