Airline Pilots'' Perceptions of Advanced Flight Deck Automation

A psychological instrument was constructed. Exploratory analysis indicated that five distinct factors were responsible for a significant portion of the variability in pilots'' perceptions of advanced flight deck automation systems and training on those systems. After examination, these factors were labelled ‘comprehension'', ‘training'', ‘trust'', ‘workload'' and ‘design''. Some of the results indicated that those pilots who operated mainly Airbus-manufactured aircraft types had a statistically significantly more positive perception of the design of the automation system than those of their counterparts who flew mainly Boeing-manufactured aeroplanes. Co-pilots who operated primarily on the company''s long-range aircraft expressed significantly more positive perceptions of advanced flight deck automation training than the long-range line captains.The biographical variables of age, years of flying experience and total flying hours, appeared to be negatively correlated to both the comprehension and training dimensions of advanced flight deck automation. Finally, it was concluded that the overall responses of the majority of participants in this quantitative study were very positive.