The FAA is accepting public comment through September 24 on a draft update to its human factors guidance for flightdeck system controls Advisory Circular, which would replace15-year-old AC 20-175. The draft, AC 20-175A, retains the original’s scope of cursor control devices, touchscreens, speech recognition, and dedicated switches and knobs, while adding guidance for aircraft designs and cockpit technologies that have emerged since 2011.
Proposed guidance applies broadly to aircraft certified under Parts 23, 25, 27, and 29, a scope that includes light and midsize business jets, larger business jets, and business and utility helicopters, as well as airliners and other aircraft categories. The most notable addition addresses “emerging aircraft,” including powered-lift and eVTOL designs. The FAA writes that these aircraft “often possess unique designs, flight, and handling characteristics” but that the human factors principles in the rest of the AC “are also applicable to the flightdeck controls” of these aircraft.
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