Workload
How much of the pilot's capacity each phase of flight consumes, from the checklist to the go-around, and how sharply it jumps when something fails.
SPARK AERO · Neurotechnology for aviation
Flight data records what the aircraft does. SPARK AERO measures what the pilot is going through: workload, attention and oxygenation, in the simulator and in the cockpit, for the people who train and assess pilots.
Three signals an instructor sitting behind the pilot only half sees.
How much of the pilot's capacity each phase of flight consumes, from the checklist to the go-around, and how sharply it jumps when something fails.
A saturated pilot stops scanning: the head freezes and attention tunnels. SPARK sees the scan collapse, read together with workload.
Hypoxia clouds judgement before the body feels it. Oxygenation next to the brain signal makes that risk visible.
Human factors sit behind most general aviation accidents. Yet training reviews still rest on what the instructor saw and what the pilot remembers, which is exactly what fails under pressure.
Two independent signals saying the same thing at the same instant, workload rising and the scan stopping, are far harder to dispute than a single number. That is what turns a debrief into evidence.
Workload, before it shows.
The core engineered inside a race car carries into flight: it is built to hold where conditions are extreme.
Airframe and engine vibration through the seat and the headset.
Manoeuvring, aerobatic and turbulence loads on the head and the body.
Oxygen that thins with altitude, and a pilot who cannot feel the change.
A head that turns constantly to scan, and a signal that has to stay clean through it.
An objective read on student progress: where workload peaks, when the scan breaks, which manoeuvres need another lesson.
Evidence for simulator sessions and assessments, recorded on one timeline with the scenario events.
The load and attention of a pilot flying at the limit, measured instead of guessed.
It is the measurement of a pilot's brain activity and physiology, typically by EEG and biometrics, to understand workload, attention and fatigue. SPARK AERO applies it to pilot training and assessment.
Yes. Workload indices computed from the brain signal, read together with the scan and the flight events, give a measure that does not depend on what the pilot remembers afterwards.
No. SPARK AERO reads attention from the movement of the head, which reveals when a pilot stops scanning. It is a signal to read together with workload, not a measurement of gaze.
Yes. SPARK AERO starts in the simulator, where scenarios and failures can be repeated, and is built to carry into the cockpit.
Flight schools, training centres, aerobatic and air racing pilots, and the training departments of manufacturers and operators.
SPARK is fitted programme by programme. Request access and someone on the team answers you personally.
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