Heads Up

The today and tomorrow of flightdeck vision

The head-up display (HUD) entered service on military aircraft as a means of simplifying pilot operations. The potential on civil aircraft soon became obvious and systems were developed for, and entered service on business jets and transport aircraft. Continued development has seen HUDs fielded specifically for GA aircraft, while business jet and transport examples have become technically more capable. Further, the HUD technology-path has continued to receive inspiration from the military and now head-mounted displays (HMD) are being introduced. A decision by the US Federal Aviation Administration regulations allow sensor imagery shown on HUDs to be used alone to land aircraft in low-visibility conditions has led to the development of such systems for business jets. This article discusses ongoing developments in HUDs and other vision systems for lighter civil aircraft, in particular turboprop transports, business jets, and GA aircraft.

Business jet head-up displays

A modern trend in HUDs is the combination of enhanced vision system (EVS) and synthetic vision system (SVS) capabilities in the display to deliver the combined vision system (CVS). The EVS receives information from infrared and visual-range sensors, while the SVS uses databases providing terrain, obstacle, navigation and airport/runway data.