Visual test results compared with flying performance in telemetry-tracked aircraft

We compared flying performance with the results of laboratory and airborne visual tests. Pilots flew high-performance, telemetry-tracked A4 and F-14 aircraft. In the low-level task, the index of performance was bombing accuracy; in air-to-air combat, performance was assessed by the number of missile hits scored per hit received (win/loss ratio). The chief laboratory tests comprised discrimination between two speeds of a radially-expanding flow pattern, and manual tracking of a visual target. Airborne tests comprised visual acquisition distance of an A4 aircraft, and visual sensitivity to a change in the course of an approaching A4 aircraft. We found that the flow pattern and movement-in-depth tracking test results correlated with bombing accuracy, confirming previously reported simulator findings. The results of airborne visual tests correlated with the win/loss ratio in combat, and tracking test results correlated with the number of missiles fired per combat engagement. Subsidiary tests of motion, grating contrast, and visual acuity thresholds were carried out for comparability with other studies, but these measures did not predict flying performance.