…More On The Drawing Board

At the other end of the spectrum are a couple of systems being developed by NASA and the military that (we hope) will trickle down to GA in the future. Gulfstream, which became the first GA manufacturer to certify an enhanced vision system to give aircraft lower ILS numbers (so to speak), is partnering with NASA to develop combination head-up and head-down display systems that include “advanced multi-scan weather radar, advanced sensors, a voice recognition system and cockpit displays with computer-generated images of the terrain.” Like Chelton’s already-available system, the NASA gear combines a terrain database and GPS navigation to provide the virtual view of the world outside. Another system under development is less dependent on wizardry and more on wattage. BAE Systems has received a $13 million contract from the Air Force to apply its weather-penetrating 94-GHz imaging radar in the development of an Autonomous Approach Landing Capability (AALC) system. When combined with “optical sensors, new digital light engine hedup displays, a surface guidance system and multi spectral radome,” the system will allow zero-ceiling/zero-visibility operations anywhere on earth.