PILOTS FROM US Air Force Air Combat Command have completed a "highly successful" evaluation of the cockpit design for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22. The seven-pilot cockpit-evaluation team consists of a customer review board established to ensure that the design meets USAF requirements.
The part-task simulation test, the fifth in a series of evaluations begun in 1992, was conducted in Lockheed Martin's cockpit/avionics-integration laboratory in Marietta, Georgia. Each operational ACC pilot flew eight mission scenarios in the simulator to evaluate features such as head-up and multi-function display symbology.
"The pilots noted a couple of minor things, but that was why we did the test. Most of the items they found, were 'desirement' changes rather than requirement changes," says John Dobbs, F-22 pilot/vehicle-interface integrated-product team manager.
The test was the most advanced yet conducted, says Lockheed Martin, and the functions evaluated are scheduled to be incorporated in the F-22's cockpit displays, beginning with the fourth of nine flyable aircraft which will be built during the current engineering-and manufacturing-development programme.
Source: Flight International
