Relationship of age and simulated flight performance

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between age and aviator performanc e on a flight simulator. DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study. PARTICIPANTS: The sample consisted of 100 aviators aged 50 to 69 (mean = 58 ) MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pilots were tested on a Frasca 141 flight simulator (Urbana, IL), linked to a UNIX-based IRIS 4D computer (Silicon Graphics, Mo untain View, CA), which both generated graphics of the environment in which the pilots flew and collected data concerning the aircraft's flight condit ions. RESULTS: We found that increased age was significantly associated with decr eased aviator performance on a flight simulator. CONCLUSIONS: Although there was a significant relationship between increase d age and decreased aviator performance, age explained 22% or less of the v ariance of performance on different flight tasks; hence, other factors are also important in explaining the performance of older Pilots.