Low-level terrain-following flights using a combined synthetic and enhanced vision system for guidance have been completed in New Mexico. The demonstration flights under the SE-Vision programme involved a US Federal Aviation Administration Boeing 727 testbed flown by US Air Force pilots.

The 727 is equipped with a terrain database, dual-band infrared sensor, head-up display and head-down primary flight and navigation displays. The enhanced-vision image from the IR sensor was combined with synthetic-vision cues generated from the database to allow pilots to hand-fly the 727 at 650ft (200m) in mountainous terrain, says Tim Etherington, Rockwell Collins prime system engineer.

The IR image is presented head-down as a 30° field-of-view inset within a 60°-wide perspective display generated from the database. On the head-up display the IR image is overlaid with a terrain wireframe from the database, which also generates railway-like flightpath cues and a flight-director cue for the pilot to follow.

Results were “beyond initial expectations”, says Etherington. “The radar altimeter was saying 650ft. We were driving the aircraft to a point in space with the database, and it was exactly were it said it would be,” he says. The USAF pilots, active-duty Lockheed Martin C-130 crews, flew the 727 after only one simulator session, he says.

GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC

Source: Flight International

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