HUD manufacturers continue to enjoy strong sales as HUDs move into more airline cockpits and simulators. Four manufacturers-Flight Dynamics, Sextant Avionique, Flight Visions and Honeywell/GEC-Marconi-provide HUDs for military and general aviation aircraft, for airlines and for helicopters.

Flight Dynamics, jointly owned by the Rockwell Collins air transport division and Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics, has 236 orders and additional options for its Head up Guidance Systems. The HGS will equip Southwest Airlines' Boeing 737-300, -500 and -800.

With the HGS, airlines can conduct manually flown Category IIIA operations down to 700RVR with a decision height of 50 feet. The HGS provides rollout guidance on landing and also can be used for takeoff guidance in conditions as low as 300RVR. Another advantage is lower landing minima at Type 1 ILS facilities. The HGS is currently certified or being certified on the Boeing 727-100/-200, all models of the Boeing 737 (except the -100 and -200), the Boeing Business Jet, Bombardier's Regional Jet 100 and 200, the Challenger 604, Dash 8 -100 and -200, the Dassault Falcon 2000 and 900EX, the Dornier Do-328, the Embraer EMB-135 and EMB-145, and the Saab 2000. The HGS is standard equipment on C-130Js ordered by the Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Italian Air Force, USAF and USMC.

Airlines using or ordering the Flight Dynamics HGS include: Alaska Airlines, Brit Air, Crossair, Delta Air Lines, easyJet, Horizon, Lauda Air, Lufthansa City Line, Ryan International Airlines, SAS, Southwest Airlines, Tyrolean Airlines and United Parcel Service.

Airlines have ordered 685 units and corporate operators have ordered another 82 HGSs. 174 C-130Js will come equipped with the HGS.

The current HGS series has a 30-by-26-degree field of view and a 30-by-24-degree field of view for raster display. No pilot head movement is required to see the entire field of view. There are five flight director modes and the HGS is integrated with flight directors, AFCS, TCAS and EGPWS. Display can be in conformal or compressed format. The HGS is fail passive and provides cues for flare and rollout. Options include TCAS and windshear information. The HGS is EVS capable. Display luminance for stroke only is greater than 2,200 foot-Lamberts and greater than 1,000 foot-Lamberts for raster. Total system weight is approximately 60 pounds and cost is approximately $500,000.

Sextant Avionique installed its first HUD in an Air Inter Mercure 100 in 1975. The company has since moved from a basic HUD to its advanced Head-up Flight Display System (tradenamed HFDS). The HFDS has the widest field of view, which measures 40 by 26 degrees, and the unit can be retrofitted without major modifications to the aircraft. There is a choice of two computers, which can adapt to analog or digital avionics suites. The computers can receive and display information from EVS sensors.

The HFDS 100 is an Integrated HUD for use on the A320 (HFDS 120) and the A330 (HFDS 130). With the HFDS 100, these aircraft reduce their landing requirements from 125 meters RVR to a 100 meter RVR and takeoff limits are reduced from 125 meters RVR to 75 meters RVR. This HFDS is also applicable to the A340, and to Boeing 777, 747-400 and MD-11 aircraft.

Sextant's HFDS 200 is already in use on the B-747-200 and DC-10-30/40. With the HFDS 200, limits move from a Category I/II operation with a minimum RVR of 400 meters to a manual Category IIIA with a 200 meters RVR and a takeoff minimum falling from 200 meters to only 75 meters. Decision height (DH) drops from 200 feet and 100 feet to a 50-foot DH. Other aircraft targeted for this HFDS include the Saab 2000, Global Express, B-737-200, Falcon 2000 and 900, and new-generation commuter and business jets.

The HFDS 300 is a Hybrid HUD for use on the 737-300 and moves the airplane from Category IIIA to Category IIIB operations. Decision height is reduced from 50 feet to 35 feet and takeoff RVR is reduced from 150 meters to 75 meters. Other aircraft for use with this system include the MD-80 series and B737-300/400. Available modes for all HFDS include approach and landing in IMC or VMC conditions, flare, roll out, takeoff guidance, go around, windshear alert and escape, ILS capture, en route and braking. Also, all systems are EVS compatible.

Sextant Avionique has 100 orders to supply Air Inter and Alitalia with HFDS for use on their Airbus A319, A320, A321 and A330.

In business aviation, Sextant can offer an independent fail-passive HUD with raster/stroke capability. The overhead installation fits a wide variety of airplanes. This HUD allows operators to conduct manually flown Category IIIa approaches and provides reduced minimum for Category I and II approaches. It also allows for reduced RVR on takeoff and rollout. Other important features include approach guidance to fields served only by non-precision approaches and guidance during a windshear encounter and recovery.

The Smart Head-up Display is a day/night integrated HUD with universal applications in the F-5, A-4, MiG, Alphajet, Mirage III, V and F1. Basic software includes information for piloting, navigation, approach and landing, air-to-air (gunnery and missile), air-to-ground (CCIP, CCLP, gun, rockets and bombs) along with a back-up mode. During day operation, symbols are stroke-generated while at night, during stroke-generated retrace, integrated raster generation insures high quality images. Weight for the Smart Head-up Display is 13 kilograms. Total field of view is 26 degrees and there is a 1553-B bus interface.

Sextant also offers a combined Head-up Display with a Head Level Display (HLD) which consists of two units, the HUD VEH 3020 and HLD 1410. The system was originally designed for the Dassault Rafale and is a main component in the Mirage 2000-5 cockpit. The HUD VEH 3020 uses a green phosphorus display with a 30-by-20-degree field of view. It is suitable for TV standards (525, 625, 875 lines at 50 or 60Hz). It has an automatic brightness control along with multi-mode stroke/raster.

The HLD 1410, the second component of the group, has a 14-by-10-degree field of view and also uses a green phosphorus display. The system requires 115-volt 3-phase a.c. and 28-volt d.c. Totally system weight is 24 kilograms.

A recent development is the Top Deck brand suite designed for military and special mission aircraft. It is a full display including large liquid crystal displays for heads down operation and a HUD. The system is targeted for installation in the C-130 and the upgrade study began in 1996. First prototypes were produced in 1997 and validation tests are to begin in late 1998. In 1986, Flight Visions, headquartered in Sugar Grove, Illinois, installed its first HUD in a single-engine piston airplane, the Grumman Tiger. Flight Visions president Robert Atac and team have redesigned the unit and named it the FV-2000. The first civil application came in the Beechcraft King Air. To date, the FV-2000 is certified on the Learjet 55, Gulfstream III and IV, Citation II, and all Beechcraft King Airs, Dassault Falcon 50 and Bell 230 helicopter. Certification is underway for the Bombardier Challenger 601-3A.

Flight Visions now has the Sparrow Hawk Stroke on Raster HUD which presents a graphical display of aircraft instrumentation and weapons aiming and delivery information. The symbology can be overlaid with any raster source such as FLIR. The field of view is 25 degrees and an automatic control adjusts brightness on the stroke mode and brightness and contrast in the raster mode. Flight visions offers an optional HUD camera and recorder that can be integrated into the optical system with either FTSC or PAL format. Total system weight is 17.25 pounds (7.8 kilograms). The HUD is compatible with NGV Gen 2 and Gen 3. It boasts a 30-minute Test/Remove and Replace time.

Recently Flight Visions won a $9 million contract for 82 Sparrow Hawk units for retrofit into U.S Navy F-14B Tomcats. Combining the Sparrow Hawk HUD with the FV-3000 Modular Mission Display Processor System, Flight Visions expects to begin delivery beginning the second quarter 1999.

"In making this replacement, we can use existing mounts, wiring and most important, there is no change to the mission computer software," Atac said. "This translates to overall cost savings to the Navy."

The Sparrow Hawk system won't require maintenance verification flights in visual conditions after repair or replacement of components, Atac said. The Sparrow Hawk integral combiner will allow the Navy to replace the windscreen in the F-14B with one used on the night vision compatible version used on the F-14D. The symbology on the Sparrow Hawk is similar to the current symbols used on the F-14D.

The Sparrow Hawk is being used on other military aircraft including various models of the L-59, L-139, L-159, Kfir C2E, PZL Turbo Orlik, Pilatus PC-9 and PC-7 MkII. It is also being used in the Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstration Aircraft. Customers include Boeing, Aero Vodochody, Israel Aircraft Industries, Elbit, Heli-Dyne and aircraft equipped with Flight Vision HUDs include Egypt, Tunisia, Equador, Slovenia and Romania.

Another Flight Visions HUD is the Night Hawk, which is being developed. It has a 30-degree total field of view and a six-inch aperture. The Night Hawk HUD has an automatic control for brightness in the stroke mode and brightness contrast in the raster mode. An optional video camera can record what the pilot sees.

Like the Sparrow Hawk, the Night Hawk has a built-in test capability and there are no periodic maintenance requirements. Test/remove and replace time is 30 minutes. A single low-cost piece of automatic test equipment is available for depot maintenance. Specifications are MIL-STD-810E, 461D/426. MTBF is 2,500 hours.

The Honeywell HUD 2020 was developed in partnership with GEC-Marconi. The compact electro-optical overhead unit gives the pilot real time flight and performance information. The conformal field of view is 30 by 25 degrees.

Information on the HUD 2020 includes flight path vector, acceleration cues, conformal approach symbology, conformal symbolic airport and runway, conformal low airspeed awareness, flare cute, selectable glideslope and flight path display, windshear annunciation and TCAS II display. The 2020 is certified to Category II.

The 2020 is an option on the Gulfstream G IV, -IVSP and G V.

By John Wiley