Heart rate is a parameter describing activity of human heart and its psycho-physiological character based on sympathovagal balance of autonomic nervous system, which could be instrumental for indicating stress in aircraft pilots. The assessment focuses on transition from the airplane's analog presentation of flight data to digital visualization (glass cockpit). The main objective was to examine heart rate of pilots according to the change of flight data imaging during proposed training program, using flight simulator (TRD40 type) and aircraft (DA40 type). Another aim is to interpret stress during different flight tasks and define its influence on pilots' performance. A group of ten healthy pilots with the same level of experience participated in a seven week training program. A custom designed system consisting of non-complex units was used for measuring procedures during every recorded flight. Heart rate was recorded using a commercial chest belt made by Garmin ^® . Spectral analysis of the measured signal has provided the status of sympathovagal balance based on Lomb normalized periodogram. Variation of mental stress according to the values of low to high frequency ratio LF/HF was proven according to the course of training. Results show that the transit from analog to digital visual presentation of avionic data induces stress among pilots and heart rate could be an appropriate parameter defining the actual stress condition.

Magnetoreception has been widely studied in birds mainly through the paradigm of homing or seasonally appropriate migratory direction. It was found that in total darkness or under selected light regimes (differing in colour and/or intensities), migratory birds display orientation towards certain “fixed” directions which do not correspond to the migratory or homing direction. This “fixed orientation” might correspond to the so-called magnetic alignment recorded in animals of different non-avian taxa. Here we demonstrate that also “common”, non-migratory birds, pheasants, adopt a preferred position and body orientation when drinking at a circular dish. We recorded these parameters by means of camera traps in a pheasantry under control conditions and under experimental exposure to bright blue light. We identified three types of orientation at the edge of drinking dish: standing radially or tangentially with left or right eye to the dish. The position of tangentially drinking chicks was significantl...

During their professional career, pilots often experience a change in workplace conditions in the form of an aircraft cockpit ergonomics change. Change of working conditions may impact their perception of flight data or the pilot’s psychophysiological condition, especially in cases of inexperienced pilots. The presented study deals with the influence of cockpit ergonomics change on the performance and pilot workload during a training course. We divided 20 subjects with no previous practical flying experience into two training groups (Gr. A and Gr. B). The flight training was focused on acquisition of basic piloting skills where both groups experienced cockpit ergonomics change in different training phases. The performance (piloting precision) was assessed based on deviations from predetermined parameters of the monitored flight manoeuvres. Heart rate variability qualified the extent of workload. The study showed the influence of the cockpit arrangement on piloting precision, where the transition to other type of cockpit ergonomics did not influence pilots’ subjective workload with statistical significance.

With the expanding electrification in all sectors of transport, it is necessary to look for new efficient solutions for propulsion systems for use in air transport. One of the approaches can be the use of electric ducted fans (EDFs), especially in, but not limited to, the case of unmanned aerial vehicles with vertical takeoff and landing. This concept has been known for several decades but has been used very little and therefore has been almost unexplored. This opens up opportunities for investigating the performance characteristics, electrical consumption or efficient thrust vectoring of EDFs with respect to their design and operational use. The presented study therefore deals with the influence of the EDF design change on its performance characteristics. These design changes mainly concerned the geometry of the cowling, i.e., reduction and increase of outlet cross section, and arrangement of fans, i.e., one- and two-rotor specification. The comparison was based on measuring of vertical thrust and power consumption during static testing. The results showed that the increasing outlet is the most suitable construction for the generation of vertical thrust during static testing, considering the specifically used EDF construction arrangement. Based on the findings, it can also be concluded that EDFs are a suitable option for use in unmanned aircraft as a competition to other propulsion systems.

The article presents a FlexiGuard modular biotelemetric system for real-time monitoring of special military units. The main focus of the system is on automated monitoring of special forces via parallel monitoring of each member of the special team individually, witch includes collecting sets of physiologic (or environmental) parameters. The systems consists of a set of sensors (for monitoring temperature, heart rate, acceleration, humidity etc.) and modular sensing unit, which records the measured data and sends them to the visualization unit. The measured values (i.e. heart rate, surface temperature of the body and so on) are then visualized in the graphic user interface of the visualization unit. Testing of the functionality of the system took place in both laboratory and real environment. In the case of carrying out the measurements on 34 soldiers at series of 4 probands at the same time, the sensor networks worked without any loss of signal. During the data transfer to the visualization unit, a loss of approx 0.2% of packets occurred. The system thus can offer information to the commander, which may prove essential for the optimalization of operational strategies, taking the state of wellbeing of the team members into account.