A novel global operational concept in cockpits under peak workload situations

The continual growth in air traffic demand, the emergence of new flight routes, and the increased congestion at major airports are some of the important incentives for developing novel solutions to deal with increased pilot workload and improve safety. This paper introduces a novel Global Operational Concept (GOC) for commercial aviation cockpits that is intended to support pilots during peak workload situations. This GOC applies to two-flight crew operations, intentional and unintentional flight-crew reduction and total flight-crew incapacitation, and comprises different solutions that cover all safety-related crew duties across all phases of flight and serves as an interface between technology and organisations. The GOC concept was developed under the Advanced Cockpit for Reduction of Stress and Workload (ACROSS) project, which was part of the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and investigated four solutions that will contribute to the reduction of pilot workload and stress by adapting cockpit applications and systems to challenging situations.