Development and evaluation of a background attitude indicator

In this article, we describe a series of 3 studies conducted to evaluate th e feasibility of using a unique type of attitude indicator, called a backgr ound attitude indicator (BAI), to recover from unusual attitudes. The BAI i s a head-down display format that combines tactical information in the cent ral portion of the display with attitude information in the border surround ing the tactical information. The attitude information, in essence, frames the tactics display. The results of the 3 studies showed that BAIs in gener al are capable of portraying enough attitude information to enable pilots t o recover from unusual attitudes. Specifically, BAIs being used for unusual attitude recovery tasks should contain continuous flow patterns that allow pilots to determine approximate attitude (pitch) quickly.