Ken S. Tucker wrote:

Referring to sims, I found the AoA indicator of scientific
interest to measure airfoil performance, but in shooting landings
I relied on the IAS (knots/hr) and vertical airspeed
indicator(feet/minute), those together give a rough idea of angle
of descent, and one then gets a feeling of AoA from pitch.

Yes, you can get a "feel" of AOA from all that, but not enough to
fly AOA with the accuracy required in modern carrier operations. A
half degree of pitch or a decel/accel trend that you don't see in
time could be the difference between a safe landing and a bolter or
worse.

What might be considered is an instrument that can provide all
that info in nice clear form on single gauge at a glance, let's
design it.

Can't do it; there are too many different types of measurements to
be made and displayed. While a velocity vector pointer on a HUD
may give a good portion of it, speed is missing...

. . .

On an actual display, suppose we display the IAS as a vector,
with lengths that are colored green, yellow, red, with red-yellow
demarking a near stall, as well as the Pitch vector, then at the
origin of those displayed vectors, you can print out AoA to .1 degree
accuracy, sufficient for most pilots.

While you may have a single display here, you actually have 3 different
"gauges": Speed vector, pitch vector, and AOA readout.

In my experience, some guys like dials (like clock hands) others
like digital, that was a hassle when Volt-Ohm meters went digital,
lots of arguments. Personally I like both. The meter provides a
sense of rate of change, but the digital provides precison at a
glance, so I think the 'AoA' indicator ought to be designed to
reflect those concerns and conditions.

Modern HUDs (Head-Up Displays) have many readouts on a single display
already. As you note, there are many individual preferences, so there
is no single "standard" HUD display. You may have some interesting
ideas for the display of the information, but the concept is hardly new.


One question, would you want a g-force indicator?

In a fighter, yes. In a 747, probably not; it would be superfluous.