Citation

Estock JL, Alexander AL, Stelzer EM, Baughman K. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 2007; 51(2): 75-79.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/154193120705100205

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The tremendous expense and inherent dangers of training in the aircraft have led to the increased use of simulators for practicing and maintaining air combat skills; However, the advantages and disadvantages of using high or low-fidelity simulators for such training must be specified. An experiment was conducted to examine the in-simulator performance differences between pilots flying lower-fidelity simulators compared to higher-fidelity simulators. The primary difference between the two simulators is the visual scene field-of-view. Sixteen U.S. Air Force F-16 pilots flew standard training missions as an integrated team of four (a "four-ship") with two pilots flying in the high-fidelity simulators and two pilots flying in the lower-fidelity simulators. Various subjective and objective measures were collected to assess the pilots' ability to maintain a briefed formation. Overall, the results suggest that pilots who practice four-ship employment in the lower-fidelity simulators can perform at the same level as those who practice in the high-fidelity simulators. Future analyses should be conducted to examine the impact of simulator fidelity on other air combat skills and on training effectiveness.

Language: en