Design and Assessment of Fighter Pilot Assistance Systems for Air-to-Air Refuelling with Probe-and-Drogue-Equipment

Abstract

AbstractAir-to-air refuelling (AAR) with a probe-and-drogue system is a highly demanding process for fighter pilots. In the frame of the project “Future Air-to-Air Refuelling” (F(AI)2R) the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is designing concepts for assistance systems to support fighter pilots during this manoeuvre. The AAR process was examined using a hierarchical task analysis (HTA) based on a literature review and semi-structured interviews with Eurofighter-, Tornado- and test pilots. “Situation Awareness Requirements” (SAR), which represent relevant parameters for the situation awareness of the fighter pilot were derived from the HTA and rated by pilots according to their relevance. The collected data was then used to design different concepts of pilot assistance systems using a morphological box and a decision matrix. The concepts were visualised as storyboards, assessed by test pilots of the “Wehrtechnische Dienststelle 61” (WTD 61) and optimized based on their feedback. In this paper, the used methodology as well as the results of the HTA and SAR analysis are presented. Besides that, storyboards for pilot assistance systems displaying the overtake speed “German Patent No. 10.2022.110.505” and the “Contact Assistance, Status and Warning System” (CASWS) “German Patent No. 10.2022.123.653” are described. Additionally, the planned implementation using a HoloLens 2 is explained and the strategy for the subsequent simulator study on the DLR fighter aircraft simulator “Military AiR vehicle Simulator – Fast Integration Testbed” (MARS-FIT) is described.