Vanguard Magazine

36 APRIL/MAY 2021 www.vanguardcanada.com TECHNOLOGY Jamie Hunter, of "The Drive." For exam- ple, if the pilot for whatever reason choos- es not to make changes to the display by employing the touch-screen methods, s/ he can revert to controlling the display via the Hands-on-Throttle-and-Stick or HO- TAS methods. Saab's Gripen E test pilot Robin Nordlander also explains the Grip- en designers acknowledged the benefits of including the traditional HUD, in the human-machine-interface (HMI) of the Gripen E as pilot testimonials indicated sometimes they prefer flying using only the HUD, in moments where the HMD isn't really necessary. Finally, one important feature of the WAD is the pilot's ability to readily adjust the scale of the subject mat- ter on the display. Lockheed Martin's HMD In an interview with Billie Flynn, this abil- ity to adjust the scale proves to be impor- tant, perhaps for the very reasons Furness, Adams and others conceived of the "su- percockpit" in the first place. The anec- dote shared by Lockheed Martin's F-35 test pilot also says a lot about what lies at the heart of our discussion – our collective accomplishments that go into the design of these advanced fighter aircraft. I asked Billie if he believes his experiences flying the CF-18A-D Hornets, all models of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Eurofighter Ty- phoon and all three variants of the F-35 Lightning II show us we have achieved the supercockpit envisaged by men like Fur- ness and Adam long ago. He replied with an anecdote. "I was invited to an air show in Finland, not long ago, and a reporter's questions seemed to encourage me to reflect on my early Hornet experiences, which I had first flown 36 years earlier. A much younger USAF F-35 pilot from Hill Air Force Base was next in line. In response to a similar question he said, 'I don't know anything about that guy there,' pointing to me, 'but I've flown the F-35 for the past two years on squadron. I'm 27 years old.' Thereaf- ter, he pretty much discounted my entire experiences, labelling me a 4th gen baby. The point is this younger generation has a real appetite for the enormous bandwidth of information we can feed them. They are gamers – they love this stuff. When we ask, what we can do to satiate their appetites, and really push the envelope of their cog- nitive capabilities, the answer comes in the form of the helmet F-35 pilot wears. It also comes from the displays offered to them in a cockpit completely cleaned out of all the needles, dials and other displays that today would be considered a real waste of time, and in some respects serious distractions. "The F-35 HMD works every single time; it allows them to see everything they need to see, in and out of the cock- pit. And the screen – that one big touch- screen – can easily share tons of data. You can put hundreds of different symbols for air-to-air, air-to-ground, and electronic or- der of battle tasks on the screen. Early in the design and testing process, we planned for certain numbers of symbols for each task in the air. However, after fielding the F-35, we discovered that the users wanted to double up the number of symbols that they could have displayed because these young kids had the appetite and the capac- ity to take in and see way more than I would have imagined. Can we do better, with this "supercockpit?" Possibly. Why do we need to populate heads-down screens with 'do- mestic' displays such as engine instruments, fuel indicators, weapons loads, when that could all be automated and monitored by the airplane itself and everything else could be projected on my HMD? We can always work on ramping up the computer power – make it even faster than it is. We can then improve incrementally the sensors and their spectrums. We can also work on fusion, making it better and better each time. "Do we have a super cockpit? Boy, I be- lieve that we are there. I have to believe when you watch what men and women do in the F-35 now, that we really understand this next generation, in terms of what we intended for the pilot to do." Lieutenant-Colonel Dean C. Black retired from the air force in 2006. He amassed 3,800 hours flying light observation and utility helicopters in support of the land forces. Dean also completed the Aerospace Systems Engineer Course (pasc), the Land Forces Command and Staff Course (plsc), and the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College (pcsc). He has served as Ex- ecutive Director | Publisher-Designer-Editor (Airforce Magazine) of the RCAF Associa- tion since 2006. Dean has a B.Sc. (Applied Science, 1981) and an MA (War Studies, 2001) from RMC, an MA (Leading, Innova- tion & Change, 2016) from York St. John University (UK), and is nearing completion of an M.Sc. (Strategic Planning) with the Edinburgh Business School of Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. He is a certified as- sociation executive (CAE, 2010) with the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) and a certified strategic manage- ment professional (SMP, 2017) with the As- sociation for Strategic Planning. Lockheed-California Company's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF). Art concept by Syd Mead, September 1986.

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