Er touchscreen veien å gå?

Honeywell Touchscreen Research Guides FAA Regulation Phoenix-based aerospace manufacturer Honeywell is under an ongoing contract with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to study the usability of various forms of touch technology, such as cockpit displays, that will help to determine what factors would cause pilots to make more input errors or take longer to perform tasks as compared to traditional manually controlled cockpit interfaces. The Crew Interface Motion Simulator (CIMS) where Honeywell performs touchscreen avionics human factors research.  Honeywell is targeting business aviation and regional air transport aircraft for a new line of touchscreen avionics that it is currently developing, with the FAA-contracted research. The company has not announced any specific aircraft that will receive touchscreen-enabled flight displays, but according to Jeff Merdich, director of product marketing for Honeywell's commercial avionics division, business jets and regional aircraft are the target market. As part of its research, Honeywell recreates the turbulent flight deck environment where touchscreen avionics will be deployed with a "six degrees of freedom flight deck simulation platform," according to Merdich. This allows test pilots to interact with touchscreen-enabled avionics displays mounted at forward, outboard and overhead cockpit positions. "This allows the collection of accurate, repeatable data relating to pilot workload, accuracy and fatigue to ensure that we understand the efficiency of these devices in a flight deck environment," said Merdich. "We also utilize Honeywell's fleet of flight test aircraft to extend this research to the actual flight environment."