An Improved Helicopter Display That Correlates Flight Symbols with Flight Imagery

"Innovative pilot cueing display concepts are proposed that will allow helicopter pilots to operate in reduced-visibility environments using a head-down primary flight display. The cueing displays will be based on earth-referenced information obtained bysensing aircraft position and flightpath relative to the earth, and digitized data for terrain and obstacles in the vicinity of the helicopter. The pilot cueing symbology will be superimposed on a computer-generated image of the surrounding terrain andobstacles as well as images of the outside world from imaging sensors such as infra-red and radar. Display concepts are proposed for a complete range of civil and military rotorcraft operations including hover/landing, forward flight and autorotation.Candidate hardware/software architectures for an earth-referenced pilot cueing display will be defined in Phase I based on a limited evaluation of display concepts on a fixed-base simulator. In Phase II, a prototype system will be developed and evaluatedusing piloted simulation and flight testing. This display will be useful for all civil and military helicopter operators for avoiding collision with terrain and obstacles in impoverished-visibility conditions. Example applications include military nightoperations, emergency medical evacuation and airborne law enforcement. The concepts can be readily extended for fixed-wing operations as well as for the intelligent transportation initiati