Bombardier Aerospace has taken integrated avionics to a higher plane with the introduction at NBAA this afternoon of the Global Vision flightdeck for the Global 5000 and Global Express XRS ultra-long-range business jets.
The system will feature the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 Fusion, the avionics maker’s next generation Pro Line 21 platform, in a panel and “flight environment” created by Design Q, design consultants.
Launch customer London Air Services, based in Vancouver, Canada, will install the system in a new Global Express XRS set for delivery in 2011. London Air owns a fleet of Bombardier business jets as well as several AgustaWestland AW139 executive helicopters. Bombardier expects to certificate Global Vision in the third quarter of 2010 and enter service in 2011.
“We can’t wait to fly it,” says Wynne Powell, London Air Services’ president.
Perhaps the most impressive element of Vision will be Pro Line 21 Fusion, a package that will provide pilots with new levels of situational awareness and enhanced decision-making tools. Included will be four 15in (380mm) high-resolution active matrix liquid crystal displays and the Collins Head-up Guidance System, with flightpath guidance and energy management tools.
The cockpit – a replica is being unveiled at the static park this evening – will showcase the first operational application of synthetic vision fused with infrared-based enhanced vision on the same primary flight display.
Collins is developing the synthetic vision system, which provides a computer-generated image of the environment from a terrain and obstacle database. The enhanced vision system is CMC Electronics’ SureSight i-Series. Gulfstream and Honeywell are working on a similar synthetic and enhanced vision system package for executive aircraft, although the information is not being fused.
Also significant will be the addition of the Collins RTA-4100 MultiScan weather radar technology, a feature now available only to the airline market. The radar provides a 300nm (555km) look-ahead capability, automatic operations and turbulence detection and alerting capability out to 40nm. Collins says Fusion will also include a more intuitive interface to the pilot, with information windows, phase-of-flight sensitive data, including checklists and charts that automatically update, and voice recognition.
Source: Flight Daily News
