This report describes a study designed to address four research questions about symbology for electronic displays of charting information. The main research question was whether pilots could identify a set of test symbols. Three other research questions were addressed regarding: (1) labels for navigation aid symbols, (2) grouping navigation aids into families, and (3) line style conventions on paper charts and electronic moving map displays.

This document, which is based on information from March 2007, provides an overview of Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) systems and capabilities, with particular focus on the systems' human interface. It updates the April 2005 EFB Industry Review (Yeh and Chandra, 2005). The information in this document will be useful to anyone interested in the EFB market, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), customers, operators, manufacturers, and researchers. The report is divided into three sections. The first section briefly reviews EFB research conducted by the Volpe Center over the past...

The Volpe Center has developed a set of five tools that can be used to evaluate Electronic Flight Bags(EFBs) from a human factors perspective. The goal of these tools is to help streamline and standardize EFB human factors assessments by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This document introduces all of the Volpe EFB assessment tools, which are for use by any FAA or industry evaluator. This report contains descriptions of the tools and practical information on when and how to use each tool. It is not necessary to be a human factors expert to use the tools, and the tools can be...

This report presents the findings of two studies related to the design of symbology for electronic displays of navigation information. Experiment 1 addressed whether symbols have key features that are necessary for recognition, i.e., symbol stereotypes. Experiment 2 tested symbol-feature rules, which define a consistent way to design symbols, to determine if pilots could learn and apply them. The resulting guidelines were provided to the Federal Aviation Administration, industry, and the International Civil Aviation Organization and are documented in this report. Suggestions for evaluating...

The Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) market has accelerated rapidly in the past few years. The purpose of this industry review is to provide a primer on who is involved in the industry and what their efforts are. This informal summary of EFB technology provides a picture of the current state of EFB development as of February, 2005. This document is an update to a 2003 EFB industry review (see Appendix A of Chandra, Yeh, Riley, and Mangold (2003)). This review provides information about EFB systems, software/content, and hardware that are currently on the market or in active development. This...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has requested human factors guidance to support the new moving map Technical Standard Order (TSO)-C165, Electronic Map Display Equipment for Graphical Depiction of Aircraft Position. This document was developed to meet that need and is intended to facilitate the identification and resolution of flight-deck human-factors issues associated with presenting an airport surface moving map that depicts ownship location. The guidance in this document contains FAA regulations, industry documents, and user interface design principles that describe good...

This document is intended to facilitate the development of FAA advisory material for evaluation and operational approval of EFBs. The document will also be accessible to users and avionics manufacturers for use in system design and development. Version 1 of this human factors document covers system considerations and three EFB functions in detail. The initial set of functions discussed in Version 1 are electronic documentation, electronic checklists, and flight performance calculations.

This report addresses the wake-turbulence separation standards for close-spaced parallel runways. Ground-wind anemometer data collected at Kennedy (landing) and O-hare (takeoff) airports are analyzed to assess the lateral transport probability for wake vortices.

The Transportation Feasibility Study addresses growing concerns with traffic and parking congestion at popular recreation sites within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (RRCNCA), a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) natural area in Clark County, Nevada. The Transportation Feasibility Study builds on several past efforts to examine the causes of congestion at RRCNCA and to assess the feasibility of potential transportation strategies. This study will focus on alternatives and strategies that are feasible, cost-effective, and implementable, targeted to address current transportation...

Criteria and procedures have been developed for assessing crashworthiness and occupant protection performance of alternatively designed train sets to be used in Tier I(not exceeding 125 mph) passenger service. These criteria and procedures take advantage of the latest technology in rail equipment crashworthiness and include aspects that are fundamentally different from current regulations, such as the scenario-based train-level requirements, which have no counterpart in FRA's current Tier I regulations. Numerical values of the pass/fail criteria have been selected to provide an equivalent...