SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN FACTORS

2019 WINTER/SPRING MEETING 

SUMMARY

Barbara Holder Ph.D.

April 11, 2019
HF Subcommittee Winter/Spring Meeting Objectives

• Review the proposed 2021 R&D portfolio developed from strategic 

guidance at the Fall meeting 

•Provide findings and recommendations on the proposed portfolio 

• Review and update list of Human Factors emerging issues to assist 

in identifying research gaps

• Consider deep dives into significant areas

•Identify subcommittee membership expertise gaps

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HF Subcommittee Winter/Spring 2019 Summary

Hosted by The Boeing Company, Commercial Aviation 

Services, Seal Beach, California. 

• Received a deep dive briefing from Tom Prevot, Director of 

Engineering, Airspace Systems, UBER Elevate

•Toured the Boeing Operations Center and Virtual Reality Lab

• Discussed subcommittee membership expansion to fill 

expertise gaps

• Reviewed the Landscape Drivers and used the HF emerging 

issues list to provide guidance on the drivers to the FAA 

• Received briefings on the FY2021 proposed research portfolio

• Developed two F&Rs and two new Actions

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Finding and Recommendations

2021 Human Factors Research Portfolio 

Finding 1:

•The Human Factors sub-committee reviewed the 2021 HF Portfolio 

Research Requirements considering the emerging issues list that was 

created at the Winter/Spring 2018 meeting. 

•These HF emerging issues represent the sub-committee consensus of 

important issues that need to be addressed and require research. 

•The sub-committee was pleased to see that many of the HF emerging 

issues on our list were covered in the research requirements. While 

there were some gaps, these were not deemed to be significant (at this 

time) except for those involving Trajectory Based Operations and Cyber 

Security.

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Finding and Recommendations: 

2021 Human Factors Research Portfolio 

Recommendation 1: 

•The FAA should continue to use the emerging issues list to drive HF 

research requirements and also ask the sub-committee for additional 

guidance or specificity on the emerging issues where it would help 

understand the human factors issues to be addressed.

Consequences:

•Addressing the emerging issues list will proactively reduce safety risks 

in the aviation system. Conversely, not addressing the emerging issues 

list will result in adding safety risks into the system, especially as new 

features and operations are added to the system.

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Finding and Recommendations: 

Trajectory Based Operations 

Finding 2:

•The HF subcommittee was pleased with the proposed research for the 

FY2021 Enterprise ATC Human Factors development program, noting 

direct relevance to potential operational challenges for NextGen and 

TBO. 

•The subcommittee noted the scope of the proposed research was large 

and the proposed budget appeared insufficient to cover the proposed 

work, and there are not yet Agency commitments for execution of the 

portfolio. 

•The subcommittee believes the research proposal is on track to address 

the needs but the funding will need to be provided to ensure the needs 

are met. 

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Trajectory Based Operations

Recommendation: 

•The FAA should ensure the proposed FY2021 Enterprise ATC Human 

Factors research plan is in fact funded as planned and identify any gaps 

not covered under the current plan so they may be proposed in 

subsequent years.

Consequences:

•The proposed research will proactively enable early identification of 

Human Factors opportunities and assessments needed to minimize 

program costs, enhance safety, and minimize operational risks. By not 

addressing these issues, cost and risk may increase.

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Action 1

•The FAA should be commended for its efforts to provide strategic 

research guidance through development of landscapes and drivers. 

The subcommittee recognizes the importance of providing this guidance 

in a manner that enables prioritization of research activities based on 

critical aviation needs and FAA’s unique ability to address those needs. 

While the subcommittee appreciates FAA’s efforts to incorporate 

industry feedback, it is currently unclear how FAA plans to consolidate a 

growing list of drivers into succinct guidance to inform research 

planning. FAA should provide an update on this approach at the 

Summer/Fall 2019 meeting.

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Action 2

•Previously, the Human Factors Subcommittee made findings and 

recommendations about the need to develop guidance for flight deck 

information management practices, challenges/threats, procedures, and 

training. The Subcommittee was pleased to learn that research 

requirements were proposed for future work that would address this 

growing need. The Subcommittee views this as a research priority, and 

would like an update at the next meeting to review status and progress 

of the proposed work. (Ref. Aug 2018, F&R 2b)

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