Honeywell is demonstrating what might be a future application of merged vision at this year's Heli Expo show in Houston.
As part of a $16.5 million Sandblaster program, funded by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2007, Honeywell worked with Sikorsky and Sierra Nevada to demonstrate how synthethic vision and enhanced vision in various forms could be used to help helicopter pilots "see" through obscurations like sand or snow to enable landings and takeoffs without natural vision.
The companies and the US Army demonstrated the technology last year over a three-day period using a modified Sikorsky Black Hawk.
At Heli-Expo, Honeywell vice president of crew interface products, Chad Cundiff, explained to Flight International how the advanced navigation, still in the research phase, might look in a civil helicopter cockpit during landing.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
