Using Touchscreens in a Rotorcraft Environment

This paper describes the flight test of a mounted touchscreen device in a UH-60 helicopter. The device assists crew chiefs in their fuel management tasks and provides situational awareness information regarding the route/flight plan, map data, external camera displays, publications and aircraft system information. The touchscreen tested was a 10.5" display and used Projected Capacitive for touch input. It was surrounded by 28 bezel switches. Eight current crew chiefs performed tasks using the device in flight. The participants wore gloves. Flight test evaluation results show that the subjects used and preferred the bezel switches over soft buttons on the touchscreens. Results also show that 16% percent of touchscreen presses required multiple presses to register the touch. Vibration did not appear to cause a problem with using the touchscreen. Gloves did present a problem in using the Projected Capacitive touchscreen.