The introduction of ‘new technology’ automation into the flight decks of modern jet transport aircraft has had a significant impact on pilot workload. This paper presents a number of examples of workload assessment involving automatic flight performed during research and development flight trials and during routine airline operations in Europe. Subjective evaluation by pilots, augmented by recording their heart rates, was used to compare the workload experienced during various degrees of automatic flight with that experienced during non-automatic flight. The examples selected are used to illustrate some of the implications of increasing automation; the possibility of too much automation leading to a decrement in piloting performance is of particular concern.
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