Ferranti Technologies hopes to agree a deal with the UK Ministry of Defence to enhance the situational awareness of helicopter pilots operating in degraded visual environments, such as brownouts caused by dust or sand while taking off and landing.
The pilots of most of the UK's current battlefield support helicopter types use an Elbit Systems DNVG-24T helmet-mounted display to see aircraft instrumentation data while looking out of the cockpit. If introduced, UK-based Ferranti's low visibility landing (LVL) system would upgrade the current system's signal data converter to also show three-dimensional conformal symbology.
A pilot would select and reconnoitre a landing site before switching on the LVL system, which displays a series of "towers" on the helmet-mounted display image.
Changes to the appearance of these would depict lateral drift and speed and altitude deviations, when other visual cues are lost.
"The aircrew can fly and hover the helicopter without outside visual references while immediately recognising uncommanded aircraft movement," said Ferranti.
The LVL technology is informed by combining feeds from the host aircraft's inertial global positioning system equipment and radar altimeter with digital terrain elevation data from a ground mapping database.
"We are not taking anything out from the aircraft, so it will be a relatively easy installation task," said Shmuel Maman, avionics and mission systems business unit director for Ferranti Technologies.
The modification has already been demonstrated in flight using a Westland Lynx and with a simulator for the Royal Air Force's AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin (video below), to meet a proposed urgent operational requirement (UOR) deal.
The service's Merlin and Boeing CH-47 Chinook transports are the main intended recipients of the enhancement.
Maman said Ferranti is now in "very deep discussion with the MoD", and that equipment deliveries could be made within 12-18 months of a UOR deal being signed.
The LVL capability would also be compatible for use with the Elbit integrated helmet and display system employed by pilots of the British Army's Westland/Boeing Apache AH1 attack helicopters.
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