New Eyes For Pilots

CMC Electronics is on track to certify its dual-band Infrared Enhanced Vision System (IR-EVS) in late 2002, according to Rick Beasley, director of business development, CMC Electronics. The equipment has been test flown aboard a Cessna 402 on over 70 adverse weather approaches.

With the equipment's ability to see through medium fog and cloud, it should cut down runway incursion dangers, improve references for pilots during landing and minimize weather delays.

"CMC Electronics has gained considerable performance and certification-related experience, and is now in the final stages of product integration with FAA and Transport Canada Certification flight testing scheduled to begin in late 2002," said Beasley. "Certified products for landing and taxiing are expected in 2003. Certification of the IR-EVS will require the cooperation of an aircraft manufacturer and talks are under way with several businesses and commercial aircraft producers," he said. But he wouldn't discuss aircraft or manufacturers are being discussed.

Beasley, who is also an instrument rated pilot and flies a Piper Comanche, said of his IR-EVS, "We own all of the technology in-house, which gives us the ability to achieve higher and higher resolutions while producing the equipment in ever smaller packages."

The company regard the IR-EVS as the first stage in the development of a modular architecture and see the eventual merging of the IR image with millimeter wave radar and the associated sensor-fusion electronics unit as the next major goal which should occur once operational experience has been gained with IR-EVS-equipped aircraft operators.

In parallel, CMC is working with NASA to define and develop primary flight displays of the future. The Future Flight Deck Information Management and Display System is a three-year project to develop a synthetic vision system concept that integrates sensor based enhanced vision and terrain data-based artificial vision for commercial air transport flight decks.

Mike Vines