Aviation psychology: development stage in science and education

Introduction. Aviation psychology is a sphere of psychology that makes a significant contribution to ensuring aviation safety. The changes taking place at different levels of aviation psychology methodology require prompt reflection and critical assessment for prognostication of its further development. The purpose of this paper is to study the current stage of aviation psychology development in science and education, based on the materials from foreign and Russian sources. Materials and methods. The research materials represent a corpus of articles of foreign and Russian periodicals, collections of applied research conferences, monographs, and training toolkits. The research method represents the analysis of aviation psychology development directions, along with the consideration of peculiarities of the Russian aviation psychology development. Results. Aviation psychologists investigate the causes of aviation accidents caused by the human factor, improve the methods of psychological selection and simulator training, resolve the problems of optimisation of aircraft-specific work and find prerequisites for efficient operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in the conditions of the technological progress in the aerospace industry. Aviation psychology is taught at specialised higher education institutions and aviation training centres. Aviation psychology is in possession of inexhaustible cognitive resources for vocational guidance of young people. Conclusion. The current state of development of aviation psychology in science and education makes it possible to solve the pressing tasks aimed at increasing the reliability of aviation as a defence transport system. Most publications are related to engineering and psychological tasks involved in securing flight safety in the context of cockpit and control equipment ergonomics design, information support for pilots; improving the methodology of flight- and ground training of pilots based on digital technologies; development of interfaces for operators of remotely piloted aircraft. Russian aviation psychology is characterised by the orientation towards cultivating the cultural, historical, and moral foundations of professionalism in aviation.