American Airlines will be the first airline customer to equip its aircraft with GEC-Marconi's HUD2020 Head-Up Display systems, the manufacturer's airborne computers business director Robert Lindsay said Tuesday.

American has placed orders for 100 and has options for 400 next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft, all of which will be equipped with the HUD2020.

Lindsay didn't disclose the value of the order, but said that American was offered a very attractive price as airline launch customer.

The HUD2020, already in service on board the Gulfstream IV-SP and GV, will be certified for CAT III landing operations. It features a full digital interface, tail strike and hard landing avoidance guidance symbology, and a lightweight combiner. Its raster scan capability allows growth for future enhanced vision systems, such as infrared sensors and millimeter wave radar systems.

Honeywell will supply the remote avionics box for the airline version of the HUD2020, as it does for the business and regional aircraft versions. GEC-Marconi will build the overhead unit and combiner.

By Fred George