Search NASASearch

Engineering topics

Macdonald, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Macdonald, G..

Multi-man flight simulator

A prototype Air Traffic Control facility and multiman flight simulator facility was designed and one of the component simulators fabricated as a proof of concept. The facility was designed to provide a number of independent simple simulator cabs that would have the capability of some local, stand alone processing that would in turn interface with a larger host computer. The system can accommodate up to eight flight simulators (commercially available instrument trainers) which could be operated stand alone if no graphics were required or could operate in a common simulated airspace if connected to the host computer. A proposed addition to the original design is the capability of inputing pilot inputs and quantities displayed on the flight and navigation instruments to the microcomputer when the simulator operates in the stand alone mode to allow independent use of these commercially available instrument trainers for research. The conceptual design of the system and progress made to date on its implementation are described.

Macdonald, G.

Justification for, and design of, an economical programmable multiple flight simulator

The considered research interests in air traffic control (ATC) studies revolve about the concept of distributed ATC management based on the assumption that the pilot has a cockpit display of traffic and navigation information (CDTI) via CRT graphics. The basic premise is that a CDTI equipped pilot can, in coordination with a controller, manage a part of his local traffic situation thereby improving important aspects of ATC performance. A modularly designed programmable flight simulator system is prototyped as a means of providing an economical facility of up to eight simulators to interface with a mainframe/graphics system for ATC experimentation, particularly CDTI-distributed management in which pilot-pilot interaction can have a determining effect on system performance. Need for a multiman simulator facility is predicted on results from an earlier three simulator facility.

Kreifeldt, J. G.