Gulfstream announced at the show that it had completed intensive flight trials of enhanced vision and synthetic vision systems installed in parallel on a G450 business jet. The tests represent a significant step towards the ideal of a single integrated system combining the two technologies, which are intended to improve safety during approaches and ground operations in darkness and poor weather.
The hardware comprised the Honeywell-developed synthetic vision-primary flight display (SV-PFD) and Gulfstream’s infra-red-based second-generation enhanced vision system (EVS II). “Combining EVS and SV-PFD brings a whole new level of safety to the flight deck,” says Pres Henne, SVP for programmes, engineering and test at Gulfstream. “The effect of using the two systems simultaneously provides an unmatched level of pilot situational awareness and a flightpath that is always visible regardless of the conditions outside the cockpit window.”
During three days in September Gulfstream test pilots Tom Horne and Rick Gowthorp, along with Honeywell’s Jary Engels, flew the EV/SV-equipped G450 for a total of eighteen and a half hours. Departing from Gulfstream’s headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, they carried out more than 20 approaches to airports in ten states in the western US.
“EVS II and SV-PFD performed flawlessly,” says Henne. “The real-world infra-red images from EVS II confirmed the validity of all of the database-generated three-dimensional terrain and airport images projected on the SV-PFD.” The SV-PFD data came from Honeywell’s enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) database, while EVS II delivered real-time images from a nose-mounted infra-red camera to the pilots’ head-up display.
Gulfstream expects to certificate EVS II later this year. SV-PFD is on schedule of FAA certification by the end of the year and is expected to be available to customers in the second quarter of 2008.
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Source: Flight Daily News
