ROCKWELL-Collins has developed a three-dimensional situational-awareness display, which, it believes, has a key role to play in making future "free-flight" air-traffic-management systems safe and viable. The display is made possible by the powerful graphics capability of the large-format, high-resolution, liquid-crystal displays which are under development for Collins' Pro Line 21 integrated-avionics system aimed at business and regional aircraft.
The situational-awareness database, developed jointly by Collins' General Aviation division and All-Source Processing of New Jersey, allows pilots to view the surrounding airspace, terrain and traffic, as well as weather-related and man-made obstacles, in real-time three-dimensional view.
The system generates a perspective view of terrain-elevation data and other objects in real time and is compatible with commercially available databases, providing guidance in the terminal area as well, according to Collins.
Source: Flight International
