Aviation-Associated Spatial Disorientation and Incidence of Visual Illusions Survey in Military Pilots

ABSTRACT

Objective

The lack of information on active military pilots has led to the present study, which aimed to analyze the sense of aviation-associated spatial disorientation and the incidence of visual illusions of fighter and transport military pilots through a post-flight survey. Background: The advance of aeronautics has led to further aircraft developments, increasing heights and speeds which increase the psychophysiological demands, thus leading to greater incidence of spatial disorientation and visual illusions.

Methods

60 male pilots with large professional experience (1012 h ± 250 accumulated flying hours) between 7 and 18 years in their respective units and experience in international missions in the current conflict areas as Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq, were subjected to a post-flight visual experience questionnaire.

Results

Our findings suggest that transport pilots tend to present significant higher disorientation situations than fighter pilots, while fighter pilots presented greater sense of aviation-associated spatial disorientation but experimented more visual illusions.

Conclusion

These differences are related with the demands of the different aircrafts used by each pilot, thus specific, individualized and larger simulated training sessions in simulated environments are suggested. Further research should focus on the analysis of peripheral and central fatigue as constructs that may help to the appearance of greater spatial disorientation and visual illusions.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the significant contribution of the participating pilots and their crew in completing the study requirements. We would also like to acknowledge the involvement of predoctoral research assistants and Marina F.S for her special contribution.