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Fog Thick on EVS
CMC Electronics has a launch customer for its SureSight enhanced
vision system (EVS) and went to great lengths on Monday to avoid
revealing who it is.
 EVS director Rick Beasley dropped
a few clues in the process; however, he won't say whether the SureSight
launch application uses a head-up display (HUD) or not. He did say
that, as far as CMC is aware, aviation regulators are not likely
to grant any credit in terms of bad-weather landing performance
to an EVS that does not use a HUD. Only the HUD permits a completely
seamless transition from EVS to real-world view. This suggests that
there is not a lot of point in using a high-end wideband sensor
(like the CMC sensor) without an HUD.
The development schedule puts a new airplane out of the running
as a launch platform for the product, with flight tests starting
by the end of this year and first deliveries at the beginning of
2005.
The customer has an A in its name, says Beasley. So much for the
Boeing BBJ, which is one of three corporate jets on the market with
a factory-supplied HUD. The others are the Gulfstream V, which already
has an EVS, and the Global Express.
On this first application, says Beasley, CMC is the sensor supplier;
another company is integrating the EVS. Thales is launching its
EVS today. The company has commercial HUDs on two airplanes: the
737/BBJ and the Global Express.
Connect the dots, people.
Like Kollsman, which also uses a wideband IR sensor, CMC is more
than a little skeptical of the dual-sensor approach proposed by
Max-Viz.
"We've been in the infra-red business for 25 years,"
says Beasley. "We're not a start-up company with a dream."
The CMC sensor works in the low-to-midwave IR band, penetrating
fog and haze in the mid-wave and seeing lights in the low IR range.
"We pick up things at the outer limits of IR that nobody else
sees," he says.
CMC is expanding its EVS offerings. The system being launched
this week is known as the I-series, and is being joined by the lower-cost,
lower-performance M-series. The latter uses a simple narrow-band
IR sensor and is designed to boost the pilot's situational awareness
and help avoid obstacles on the ground. Next, CMC plans to develop
a high-resolution version of the I-series, using new focal plane
array technology developed by its IR unit in Cincinnati-but the
timing of that product depends on when the U.S. government agrees
to release still-sensitive technology for export.
By Bill Sweetman
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