08 Mar 2007
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C130 aircraft
In 2000, the ATC was asked to support BAE Systems' North American businesses in bidding for the DoD's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP), during the risk reduction phase.
A critical question was whether the flight deck crew could be reduced from four to two. Human Factors workload analysis and experimental studies, using a high-fidelity simulator, indicated that a crew of two would not be able to undertake the C-130 missions, without considerable re-design of the cockpit systems and the introduction of increased levels of automation. However, a crew of three would be able to perform the missions with acceptable levels of workload and no significant loss in situational awareness. In this study, workload was assessed using a suite of techniques, including: Multi-User Instantaneous Self Assessment (MU-ISA), the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) and the Bedford Rating Scale. These techniques are all equally applicable in domains other than aerospace and defence.
