Look at this diagram
I'm confused. Is the plane on the left banking to the port or the starboard. If it is banking to port then why is the AH showing a turn to starboard? Or am I misreading this (which is - after all - the premise of the research)? I suspect that's the whole point of this: at a certain point a starboad turn will end up being indicated as a turn to port. Recovery from this would be to turn the plane to starboard thereby increasing the turn and putting the plane into a potential spin.
The new design works by keeping the horizon level and indicating the angle of bank of the aircraft by turning a display showing the heading. In the diagram above the plane is turning on a heading of 204 degrees. The benefit of this is that as you are turning the numbers will increase/decrease depending on your direction of turn. This is an additional safety indicator.
My problem is that the new design isn't quite as 'useful'. Is the plane in level flight but turning? Or is it pitching down slightly? If you are used to the design on the left you would assume that the plane was pitching down because the numbers appear to be below the 'horizon'. However in reality there is no pitch indication on this instrument. Not at the moment anyway. That's planned for the future.
There is concern about adopting such a radical design change. Phil Hosey of the International Federation of Airworthiness in East Grinstead, UK says "This would be like changing the side of the road a country drives on. And the big question is how long would it take existing pilots to train on this."
Indeed.
However there could be a potential us for remotely piloted vehicles such as the military UAV's. Any intrument which can give a remote pilot more spatial awareness would be better.
Original article and graphic courtesy of New Scientist
