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… and gain their European wings
HUDs see signs of civilization...
• . . and gain their European wings
Attempts to transfer head-up display technology, long-established in fighter planes, to civil aircraft have met with only limited success to date. ThomsonCSF is one company to try and meet the challenge, and has w0rked'in t h e area since 1967, though it admits its main strength is not in civil avionics.
Alitalia and Finnair, the national airlines of Italy and Finland, have just purchased a civil HUD developed by Sundstrand. The system is standard fit aboard DC-9-80 airliners, and has been flying with airlines in Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia so far. The HUD could also be installed on Boeing 727s and 737s and Hercules C130 military transport planes.
Thomson's development first led to a specification for an electromechanical HUD on the Mercure 100 aircraft, unsuccessful rival to the Airbus series. Only a few of these planes were made and the system failed to take off. A fully electronic HUD followed. This was specified for the A300B and A200, Boeing's 727 and 747 and the DC-8, 9 and 10. In the decade to 1975, Thomson claims that 150 accidents or near misses occurred due to flight path inaccuracies which could have been avoided by the use of HUDs.. Fewer hard landings and missed approaches would occur, and pilot training time would be reduced with the display, the company says. The main use of the civil HUD would be during the landing procedure. Other aircraft display manufacturers maintain that the advent of automatic landing electronics has obviated the need for a civil head-up. But there are occasions where manual control, assisted by the HUD, would be preferred, such as landing at airports with poor I LS facilities. The Thomson HUD also provides improved airspeed control and circling ability. Landing in poor visibility or under windshear conditions is aided by head-up indication of angle of attack changes or flight path deviations.
Thomson-CSF, Division Equipements Avioniques, 178 Boulevard Gabriel Pdri, 92240 Malakoff, France
114
The HUD was a joint programme of Sundstrand and McDonnell-Douglas, and intended mainly for use landing at non-I LS runways where visual control to touchdown is required. The device fits the DC-9-80 in an overhead cavity with the optics stowable out of view when not needed. Little aircraft modification is needed with the entire unit - containing optics, CRT, drive electronics and brightness and other controls - attached with three fasteners. A removal and replacement time of ten minutes is claimed. An instantaneous field of view of 16° vertically (almost all below the horizontal) and 13° in azimuth is claimed for the HUD. The total fields are 26 ° and 30° , limited respectively by the
\/
;tandardfit: Sundstrand'sHUD pilot's head movement and the CRT display. Sundstrand foresees a market for the HUD as third world retrofits where I LS facilities are lacking, and cites India as a likely buyer in the near future.
Sundstrand Data Control Inc, Overlake Industrial Park, Redmond, WA 98052, USA
Aircroftsymbol Truetrockm°rke[I Disiredtrockm°rker .z.z ,___I~ _ 18~.2
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4-i / /
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~Hor~zon ~,ocit~.cto, ~,eCtedflightp~;~::;k(;':ckrefe~;O;:n,~,,,i,htpath.rker/ ; sample.symbologyon theThomsoncivil HUD Happylandings: DISPLAYS. APRIL 1983
• . . and gain their European wings
Attempts to transfer head-up display technology, long-established in fighter planes, to civil aircraft have met with only limited success to date. ThomsonCSF is one company to try and meet the challenge, and has w0rked'in t h e area since 1967, though it admits its main strength is not in civil avionics.
Alitalia and Finnair, the national airlines of Italy and Finland, have just purchased a civil HUD developed by Sundstrand. The system is standard fit aboard DC-9-80 airliners, and has been flying with airlines in Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia so far. The HUD could also be installed on Boeing 727s and 737s and Hercules C130 military transport planes.
Thomson's development first led to a specification for an electromechanical HUD on the Mercure 100 aircraft, unsuccessful rival to the Airbus series. Only a few of these planes were made and the system failed to take off. A fully electronic HUD followed. This was specified for the A300B and A200, Boeing's 727 and 747 and the DC-8, 9 and 10. In the decade to 1975, Thomson claims that 150 accidents or near misses occurred due to flight path inaccuracies which could have been avoided by the use of HUDs.. Fewer hard landings and missed approaches would occur, and pilot training time would be reduced with the display, the company says. The main use of the civil HUD would be during the landing procedure. Other aircraft display manufacturers maintain that the advent of automatic landing electronics has obviated the need for a civil head-up. But there are occasions where manual control, assisted by the HUD, would be preferred, such as landing at airports with poor I LS facilities. The Thomson HUD also provides improved airspeed control and circling ability. Landing in poor visibility or under windshear conditions is aided by head-up indication of angle of attack changes or flight path deviations.
Thomson-CSF, Division Equipements Avioniques, 178 Boulevard Gabriel Pdri, 92240 Malakoff, France
114
The HUD was a joint programme of Sundstrand and McDonnell-Douglas, and intended mainly for use landing at non-I LS runways where visual control to touchdown is required. The device fits the DC-9-80 in an overhead cavity with the optics stowable out of view when not needed. Little aircraft modification is needed with the entire unit - containing optics, CRT, drive electronics and brightness and other controls - attached with three fasteners. A removal and replacement time of ten minutes is claimed. An instantaneous field of view of 16° vertically (almost all below the horizontal) and 13° in azimuth is claimed for the HUD. The total fields are 26 ° and 30° , limited respectively by the
\/
;tandardfit: Sundstrand'sHUD pilot's head movement and the CRT display. Sundstrand foresees a market for the HUD as third world retrofits where I LS facilities are lacking, and cites India as a likely buyer in the near future.
Sundstrand Data Control Inc, Overlake Industrial Park, Redmond, WA 98052, USA
Aircroftsymbol Truetrockm°rke[I Disiredtrockm°rker .z.z ,___I~ _ 18~.2
~
4-i / /
/
'/
~Hor~zon ~,ocit~.cto, ~,eCtedflightp~;~::;k(;':ckrefe~;O;:n,~,,,i,htpath.rker/ ; sample.symbologyon theThomsoncivil HUD Happylandings: DISPLAYS. APRIL 1983