Flying is second nature for today's highly skilled Air Force pilots. But when challenges arise, these aviators need to stay focused.
Helping out are researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. By placing pilots in flight simulators and monitoring their brain waves, the scientists are designing systems that can assist in crunch time.
"Once we've detected that someone's getting overloaded, getting stressed, and likely to make mistakes, what we try to do is make the computer, make the automatic systems, more of a partner with the pilot," explains researcher James Christensen, PhD.