By John Roach NBC News
Next month, the U.S. military's futuristic research agency will
flight-test technology that allows helicopter pilots to take off and
land even when visibility is cut to zero by blinding snow and fog or
dust stirred up by other helicopters in the area.
These so-called
degraded visual environments account for three-quarters of the
helicopter accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Vernon
Fronek, a business development manager for BAE Systems, which developed
the see-through technology.
Fronek likened the experience of
landing a helicopter in these situations to driving down the road in
thick fog and losing visual awareness. "What would you do? Where would
you go? How would you avoid obstacles?" he said in an email to NBC News.
The Brownout Landing Aid System Technology
"provides 'continuous vision' in zero visibility," he said. It fuses
data from sensors such as radar and lidar — a method that uses pulsed
light to measure distance to objects —to generate visual information
about obstacles and terrain.
The information, in turn, is
presented on the helicopter's dashboard or displays integrated with a
pilot's helmet. Such helmet-mounted displays allow pilots to keep their
heads up and eyes focused outside the helicopter. It should even work with Google Glass, a wearable display technology, noted Fronek.
"We
use open architecture display standards, so most likely, yes, we could
make it work with (Google Glass)," he said. In addition to imagery, the
system displays symbols that give the pilot information on the state of
the aircraft.
The system, which weighs less than 50 pounds, has
been flown on military test aircraft to prove its effectiveness. BAE is
currently preparing for advanced flight tests with the military's
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in August and October.
The
company aims to market the technology to the U.S. military as well as
to clients in France and the Middle East, Fronek added.
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, visit his website.
Article: http://www.nbcnews.com
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