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NASA's Synthetic Vision Tested Aboard GV
In mid June, NASA researchers and Gulfstream Aerospace flight test engineers moved another step closer to implementing a Synthetic Vision System when they completed a series of test flights aboard a Gulfstream V equipped with computer-generated terrain head-up and head-down displays. The GV also was fitted with other advanced sensors, such as a multi-scan radar and a voice recognition system. NASA also tested a Runway Incursion Prevention System (RIPS) as part of a safety and security research program intended to improve pilot situational awareness.
The highly modified GV operated out of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, Virginia, with NASA's Mike Norman in the left seat, flying the GV primarily by reference to a HUD on which the SVS computed-generated terrain was displayed. The windshield directly ahead of Norman intentionally was obscured, forcing him to use the HUD and SVS display for guidance. Norman also used a head-down LCD monitor to view the computer-generated terrain. Gulfstream's senior production pilot, Chip King, served as pilot in command and safety pilot on the flights.
Norman flew a series of instrument approaches to NASA's Wallops Island facility as King watched outside for traffic and terrain, as well as monitoring the aircraft's conventional flight instruments. In back, six NASA researchers and a Gulfstream flight test engineer monitored all systems at workstations set up in the cabin.
"We're very concerned with improving pilot situational awareness, as evidenced by our development of the Gulfstream Enhanced Vision System," said Preston Henne, Gulfstream svp programs, engineering and test. Gulfstream spent more than seven years developing its IR-camera-based EVS, including wooing competing factions inside of the FAA, some of whom in Seattle were intent on derailing the firm's efforts towards earning operational credit for lower ILS weather minimums.
Gulfstream and others could be even more challenged if they elect to pursue certification of an SVS capability. One of the toughest challenges will be certification of the accuracy and integrity of the digital terrain elevation database (DTED) upon which the computer-generated terrain display depends.
NASA now is finding that its highly touted Shuttle Radar Topography Mission was a mixed success. The primary intent was to map the earth's surface with stereoscopic radar beams. One radar was mounted on the shuttle and the second was mounted on an outrigger boom. However, vibration in the outrigger boom caused significant errors in range calculations, according to program insiders. Now NASA researchers must determine how much of the radar map data can be validated and how much must be discarded.
—Fred George
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