Identification and Comprehension of Symbolic Exit Signs for Small Transport-Category Airplanes

Details

• Creators:
  Weed, David B. ; Paskoff, Lawrence N. ; Ruppel, David J. ; Corbett, Cynthia L. ; McLean, Garnet A.
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Airplanes
  • Small aircraft
  • Language
  • Symbols
  • Signs
  • Emergency exits
  • Comprehension
  • International travel
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AM-14/3
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Office of Aerospace Medicine
• Abstract:
  Global growth in travel has resulted in the need to standardize safety information and guidance systems ; for communication of significant information to the widest audience possible. Through uniform design and ; common visual components, persons in all countries can betterrecognize and follow directional information ; for safe passage, particularly in emergency situations. ; In order to communicate guidance information efficiently across language barriers, graphical signs and ; symbolic markings have come to incorporate a range of fairly standard visual components, such as exit signs ; that include arrows and the international running man symbol. A symbolic emergency exit sign has been ; approved for placement on a single, large transport-category airplane type in place of the signs currently ; required by 14 CFR 25.811 and 25.812. Use of a similar symbolic exit sign has been proposed for ; deployment on a small transport airplane. This sign would be smaller and use variations of the approved ; symbols. ; This study evaluated the smaller symbolic exit sign, comparing it with the approved sign in combination ; with variations of individual sign elements. Overall, there was little difference in the identification of either ; the approved or proposed running man element, although participants were better able to identify the type of ; arrow element currently approved for the larger transport airplanes. ; The main recommendations from this study are that future symbolic exit signs on transport-category ; airplanes be standardized and spaced within the cabin to provide the visual size needed for proper ; identification and comprehension.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27201/dot_27201_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1011.12 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection ; FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1e56569e4be97d77d45568d277a42ab4937809fd4c654d175f8856d123cef3d4619711cafb04eab6df3b73c91118dbbcec311e4fe4bb0bde036d945d78dc6fa4