Human Factors Engineering governs civil aircraft flight deck layout. Human Factors Training presumes the performance of future aviation programs will continue to rely on people in the system for efficient, effective, and safe operation. Pilots, mechanics, air traffic control personnel, designers and lots of others are the foundation for successful operations today and for the near future. There’s considerable evidence that failing to adequately consider people in the design and operations of those systems is dangerous. This becomes more significant still with the continuing progress of technology.
New systems for traffic and terrain avoidance, data link communication systems and new navigation systems based on Required Navigation Performance are only a couple of the new technologies being introduced on flight decks. Frequently, such new technologies is introduced and developed to address known Problems or to supply some operational benefit. While introduction of new technologies may solve some issues, it often introduces others. This was true, as an instance, with the introduction of complex automation.
New technology can be an option, but will bring difficulties connected to the human operator. Human Factors and its human design engineering aspects involve the application of knowledge about human capabilities and limitations to the design of technological systems. Human Factors Engineering also applies to training, personnel selection, processes, and more subjects.
Human capabilities and limitations can be sorted in many ways.
An individual is subject to many limitations, which are predictable, although not always clearly defined round the edges. In the design of most equipment, physical dimensions, body dimensions and movement are important to consider at an early stage. There are significant differences between individuals. Design decisions are regulated by anthropometry and biomechanics. Human fuel requirements, water, food, and oxygen, can influence performance and well-being. This is physiology and biology. Human input gathering, touch and perception, data processing, short and long-term memory, cognitive capacity and decision-making are subject to human error. Output, speech features for the design of voice communication systems, environmental conditions like temperature, pressure, and sound, and humidity, time of day, light, and shadow affect functionality. A dull or stressful environment will change human output.
The third port is man and the environment, pilots fitted with helmets against the sound, goggles against the airstream, and Oxygen masks against the elevation, disturbed biological rhythms and associated sleep disturbances due to the increased economic requirement to maintain aircraft flying 24 hours a day. The increase in air traffic, operations are additional facets of the environment are becoming more and more significant now and in the future.