Design and Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Application for Landing Training

While the use of Augmented Reality (AR) for pilot support in military and commercial aviation is already established, the easier access to high-tech AR devices offers new possibilities to explore the usefulness of these technologies in General Aviation. Research shows that landing a light aircraft is one of the most difficult parts of the ab initio flight training. This is also an area considered to benefit from AR. For this exploratory study, an AR application was developed to support the landing approach on a flight simulator with a Flight Path Vector (FPV), altitude, air speed and a feedback-tool. Training effects are descriptively analyzed by comparing learners’ self-evaluation and landing performance. This study provides first insights into the design, implementation, and evaluation of an AR application to support ab initio flight training. In addition, empirical data of the usefulness and limitations of the tested AR application in a flight simulator setting are discussed.