Handbook of aviation human factors

This handbook is a comprehensive source covering all the current applications of human factors to aviation systems and operations. Since previous standard texts, the range of human factors as a discipline and the range of applications of human factors to aviation have widened. To meet with these developments, this text covers more topics and applications, and includes chapters on such topics as cabin staff and security which previous general texts have not included. In the meantime, aviation has been expanding and is forecast to continue doing so, making new human factors demands. Technical and navigational innovations, advances in communication, cost and time pressures on procurement, new applications of automation, and the need to maintain and enhance aviation safety at all times, have all contributed both to the generation of new human factors problems, and to the more extensive range of possible solutions to them. Recent discernible general influences on this text include: the emphasis on human-centered automation in the specification of human-machine relationships; the international nature of aviation as reflected in cultural differences in preferred practices and procedures; wider acknowledgment of the importance of human factors cognitive processes that underlie and help to explain human task performance; and, increased concern with such activities as maintenance, certification, verification, and validation in the quest for even better system reliability. The handbook, which will be updated regularly, offers the reader major recent developments in aviation and in human factors, and foresees some of the further developments in this field