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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

BA, Electrical Engineering, Ohio State University, 1967
MBA, Arizona State University, 1981
FAA ratings:
* ATP (Airline Transport Pilot)
* ASMEL (Airplane Single and Multi-Engine Land)

Tom Leard is a Human Centered Design Technologist. His undergraduate degree specialized in radio frequency (RF) systems. His Masters degree specialized in market research and group dynamics. He has attended courses in human factors at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan that served to focus these academic backgrounds.

He has 6000+ hours in tactical and strategic military aircraft, and in a wide variety of corporate and regional aircraft.

His work in the applications of human factor theory, practice, and process began over 35 years ago as an undergraduate developing a variety of human interfaces for flight operational based applications at the Ohio State's Department of Aviation. When assigned to Honeywell's Deer Valley Flight Operations organization (1979), he introduced and developed the first versions of a formalized flight deck functional analysis process. This was followed by numerous other developments of tools for formalized human interface evaluation and the beginnings of a formalized human factors development process. The development pilot experience included projects for various automatic flight controls, displays, navigation systems and flight management systems.

He was eventually designated a Federal Aviation Administration Designated Engineering Representative (FAA DER) flight test pilot. His role in leading the BRGA pilot training team required the presentation of the practical human interface aspects of our systems and products to flight crews. This provided the opportunity to provide feedback on those systems to the design teams. And, it led to the formation of the highly cross-functional team for the Human Factors Design Review Board (1992). These experiences influenced the building blocks used to assemble the BRGA Advanced Flight Deck organization. They also guided the development of the set of formalized human centered design documents. The human-centered design process was formalized and documented as a result.

In recent years, Tom has been an active member of a series of combined industry and certification authorities, committees focused on the definition of the requirements, rules, and associated material for addressing the human interface to systems and equipment as part of the aircraft certification process. Of particular interest are the continuing challenges in applying the human centered process and knowledge to developing multi functional displays, their associated controls, and their integration into the flight deck.

Selected Publications
* Defining the Multifunction Display in Avionics Applications, October, 1999, SAE World Conference.
* Document 1999-01-5544 A Descriptive Analysis of "Bizjet" Operations with Comparisons to Airline Operations and Implications for Flight Deck Design, 1998, NASA, NAS 1-20219, Task 18, B Rogers, J Sly, T Leard, & L Clark
Selected Professional Activities
* Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
* Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Arizona.