Cockpit Display Systems Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct

Both statements are correct and the second is the reason for the first. Standby instruments run from their own sensors, their own power - typically including a dedicated battery - and their own display, sharing nothing with the main system.

Without that independence, a single failure of the symbol generators, the display power supply or a main electrical bus could remove every attitude reference at once, leaving the crew with no means of keeping the aircraft upright in cloud. The standby is the last line of defence, so its value lies entirely in what it does not share.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct

Both statements are correct and the second explains the first. A single symbol generator commonly drives several screens, converting sensor and system data into the images they present, so its failure blanks all of them at once.

This is why aircraft carry two or three generators and why reversion switching exists: the crew can move essential content onto whichever screens are still driven, ensuring that what survives is the primary flight display rather than an arbitrary subset. It is also why the display units outnumber the generators behind them.

Answer: C

Each stage adds latency, and the total is what determines whether the attitude presentation feels immediate to the pilot. Excessive lag invites pilot induced oscillation, which is why the budget is controlled throughout.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4

The sequence follows the technology. Mechanical dials with moving pointers (1) came first and dominated until the 1980s. Cathode ray tube electronic displays (2) brought the first glass cockpits from around 1982, at the cost of depth, weight, heat and power.

Active matrix liquid crystal displays (3) replaced them through the 1990s, being shallower, lighter, cooler and readable in sunlight. Large format touchscreen displays (4) are the most recent, appearing on business and transport aircraft from the 2010s.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The sequence runs from the failure to the continued flight. The display blanks or is annunciated as failed (1); the crew recognises which information has been lost (2), which is not always obvious when several parameters share a screen.

Reversion is then selected to move that content onto a working screen (3), the surviving screen presents the combined content (4), and the flight continues with a degraded but usable presentation (5). Recognition must precede reversion - the crew has to know what is missing before choosing what to bring back.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3

Urgency increases through the three categories. An advisory merely informs and requires awareness but no particular action (1). A caution requires timely action, is coded amber and typically allows tens of seconds (2). A warning requires immediate action, is coded red, usually carries an aural alert, and may allow only a few seconds (3).

The distinction is not decorative: the colour and the sound tell the crew which time régime applies before any message is read, which is what allows a correct response under high workload.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The sequence follows the approach. The display is aligned and its symbology verified before descent (1), since conformal symbols are worthless if the alignment is wrong. The flight path vector is then placed on the touchdown zone (2), which sets the aircraft on the correct trajectory directly.

Deviation symbology is kept centred through the descent (3), the runway becomes visible through the combiner (4), and the pilot transitions to the visual scene for landing (5). The head-up display makes that last transition seamless, since the eyes never left the outside world.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Only three

Three pairs are right. The primary flight display carries attitude, airspeed, altitude and heading; the navigation display carries the route, map, weather and traffic; and the engine and alerting display carries engine parameters and alert messages.

The fourth is wrong. A standby instrument presents attitude, airspeed and altitude on a small independent unit - the minimum needed to keep control if everything else is lost. It carries no moving map, and a high-resolution one would defeat its purpose, which depends on simplicity and independence.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Only three

Three pairs are right. Red indicates a warning requiring immediate action, amber a caution requiring timely action, and green a normal or engaged condition. These meanings are held constant across the flight deck so that the colour alone conveys urgency.

The fourth is wrong. Magenta denotes the active flight plan leg and the selected targets the aircraft is flying towards - "what the aircraft is doing now" - not a failure. Failures are shown in amber or red, and an inoperative item is typically crossed out or shown in white.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Only three

Three pairs are right. Enhanced vision images the real scene with a sensor; synthetic vision draws it from a terrain and obstacle database; and a head-up display presents collimated symbology in the forward field of view.

The fourth is wrong. A symbol generator converts sensor and system data into the images the displays present - it is the computing element of the display system, not its power supply. Its importance is that one generator commonly drives several screens, so its failure removes more than one.