United Airlines is flight-testing an advanced cockpit weather information (CWIN) system on a McDonnell Douglas (MDC) DC-10 under a contract from the NASA Langley Research Center.
The six-month, in-service evaluation will "-determine the cost savings from use of the system", says MDC, which is leading the CWIN consortium. The system is designed to enhance situational awareness, help the crew to avoid bad weather and optimise flight planning.
As well as improving safety, the CWIN consortium hopes that this will also reduce operating costs by cutting route distances, avoiding delays and saving fuel. The CWIN works by merging data from communications, weather and global-positioning system satellites, ground weather-radar images and lightning-strike data, as well as airport observations and forecasts. The information is displayed on a 260mm-diagonal colour liquid-crystal flat panel with a touch-screen menu, and is updated every 15min by satellite.
Other members of the CWIN consortium include Computing Devices International, Inmarsat, COMSATAeronautical Services, Astronautics, Pulse Embedded Computer Systems, Sextant Avionique, Trimble Navigation, Honeywell, Canadian Marconi and WSI.
Source: Flight International
