Helicopter flight decks have changed significantly over the last few decades and one reason is the attention being paid to ergonomic factors in flight deck design. Today’s cockpits no longer are cluttered with multiple dials, gauges, switches and artificial horizons. Instead, pilots now get most flight critical information from high resolution liquid crystal displays.
“The development of helicopter flight deck ergonomic features in recent years is consistent with the evolution of aircraft in general, moving from legacy-style cockpits (multiple instruments supported by single and simple system integration) toward glass cockpits (multi-functional displays and controls, complex system integration), while the next generation of cockpits should benefit from technologies that are still gaining maturity and robustness,” said an Airbus Helicopters official. “At the same time, through partial retrofits, the oldest helicopters of the fleet can be fitted with avionics systems mixing se…
