The first two Night Hawk head-up displays for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration aircraft have been delivered to the company by Flight Visions.

The young American firm (Sugar Grove, Illinois) is contracted to deliver seven Night Hawk HUDs and FV-3000 display processors for Lockheed Martin's contender in the huge JSF competition, with the first flight units to be delivered to Lockheed next month.

"Lockheed is very pleased that we came in at only half the weight they had budgeted for their concept demonstrator-25 pounds against the 50 pounds they had allowed for the HUD," said FV president and founder Robert Atac.

"Since the joint strike fighter is a short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft, every pound, counts, even more than normally," he said.

The main international competition for the small, independent firm with only 60 employees is the UK heavyweight GEC-Marconi, which is providing the rival JSF contender being built by Boeing with its HUD. When the vast program moves beyond the concept demonstrator phase and a definitive aircraft is chosen, the competition will re-open to supply HUDs for production aircraft.

Space at Spring Grove has recently been expanded to meet the demands of growing business in FV's integrated cockpit technologies, combining HUDs and weapon delivery systems. A recent boost was the award of a $9-million contract from Northrop Grumman for FV to retrofit the U.S. Navy's F-14B Tomcat carrier-borne fighters with its Sparrow Hawk HUD and associated FV-3000 mission display processor. Delivery of the 82 units begins next spring.

Flight Visions is also making itself felt internationally, producing systems for a variety of aircraft including the Czech L-139 and 159 light trainer/attack aircraft, the Israeli Kfir Mirage rebuilds, Poland's Turbo Orlik and the Swiss Pilatus PC-7 and PC-9 trainers.

"We've won four of the last five HUD contracts awarded in Israel against domestic competition," Atac told Show News on the company's Stand A-22 in Hall 2 Monday.

By Bob Rodwell