Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com APRIL/MAY 2021 35 TECHNOLOGY curacy of this system was between 4 and 17 milliradians. This proved accurate enough to allow the HMD to be used as a sight- ing system for missiles but not for guns or unguided munitions. The electro-optic head position sens- ing system used a charge coupled device, solid-state camera, to monitor the position of the helmet. Reflectors built into the hel- met reflected emissions from light emitting diodes situated around the cockpit. These reflections were detected by the camera and determined the helmet position 50 times per second. Accuracies of 2 milliradi- ans were obtained making this system suit- able for air-to-air gunnery. The infra-red head position sensing sys- tem consisted of detectors on both sides of the helmet and two transmitting units fixed to the cockpit. The cockpit units generated a pair of fan-shaped, infra-red beams that swept the helmet mounted de- tectors at a constant angular velocity. The infra-red beams generated pulses from the helmet detectors. Helmet position and angle was determined by integrating the elapsed time between the initial reference pulse and the known angular velocity of the scanning beams. The infra-red system offered a greater accuracy than electro- magnetic systems. The acoustic head position sensing sys- tem was a new technology which operated by timing the arrival of acoustic pulses emitted from a series of transmitters and received by a series of ultrasonic micro- phones mounted on the cockpit structure. The manufacturers of this system claimed a head position sensing accuracy of 3.43 milliradians pointing and .1-inch position- ing accuracy. The GEC Falcon Eye underwent trials with the USAF as an improvement on the F-16 Falcon. It was linked to a FLIR sys- tem and the primary purpose of the display was to provide a FLIR picture to the pilot regardless of where s/he was looking. The GEC Falcon Eye used an electro-mag- netic head tracking system and binocular flat eye pieces, like a HUD prism, which could be folded out of the way when not in use. The Kaiser Agile Eye was designed for high performance tactical aircraft in the air-to-air and air-to-ground roles. It had a 20-degree monocular field-of-view and used a Hughes one-half inch CRT. Bil- lie Flynn explained, "Falcon eye and agile eye were predecessors of the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System or JHMCS. Bil- lie Flynn recalls, "they were balanced, but bulky, expensive, and had a limited display capability. The JHMCS did a good job at getting air forces to buy into the idea of a production HMD but fast jets [lagged] behind the attack helicopter community when it came to adopting HMDs. Boeing's ACS A visit to boeing.com shows us that, "[in] August, 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) awarded Boeing a $24 million contract to produce 100 JHMCS destined for the U.S. Air Force F-15 and F-16 aircraft and the Navy's F/A-18E/F aircraft. The system's first operational use was during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2012, Boeing validated the integration of the next-generation Joint Helmet Mount- ed Cueing System II/h (JHMCS II/h) on the company's F-15 Silent Eagle demon- strator aircraft." Boeing has high praise for a contem- porary of Thomas Furness' named Gene Adam. Gene referred to the supercockpit as the "Big Picture." His work inspired Boeing's "Advanced Cockpit System (ACS)" which features the "Large Area Display" (LAD) and "Low Profile Hud" (LPHUD). During a 2017 tour of Boe- ing's production line for the F/A 18E/F, Boeing representatives conveyed their APG-79 active electronically scanned array radar is key to the Super Hornet's "contin- uously improving overall mission capability and supportability." The radar is integrat- ed with an "Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared system, JHMCS, Multi- functional Information Distribution Sys- tem, advanced high-capacity computer sys- tem, and a state-of-the-art cockpit." Their relatively new infra-red search-and-track system (IRST) proved successful in flight in February 2014 and won the approval of the US Navy the following year. Boeing's Advanced Cockpit System (ACS) is currently represented by a 10x19 inch touchscreen that operates quite similar to the most current mobile (cell) phones and tablets. Website video dated early 2018 shares some important and anticipated capabilities. For example, the software that drives the LAD will be easily upgradeable such that current 2-dimen- sional depiction of elements by symbols and such, will become 3-dimensional as upgrades progress. Clearly, Boeing is a part of this wide-ranging effort to come ever closer to the 3-dimensional "Super- cockpit" world-view men like Adams and Furness conceived of so long ago. Saab's Targo At CANSEC 2018, Saab Canada Inc. shared video of their wide-area display featured in the Gripen "Echo." This is the version acquired by Brazil, and integrates the 19x8 inch high-resolution WAD with an HMD and a traditional HUD. The HMD-HUD-WAD integrated system is manufactured by the Brazilian company AEL Sistemas. If anything, one cannot help but notice by the example of Saab's JAS 39 Gripen E how incredibly clean, if not sparse the 21st century fighter cockpit has become, in comparison to some 3rd and 4th generation fighters through the 1980s and 1990s. AEL Sistemas has helped respond to the Swedish Defence Material Adminis- tration's (FMV) 2016 order for an ad- vanced HMD system valued at SEK 119 million. The system, called Targo, was an- ticipated to begin deliveries between 2022 and 2026. Promotional information from Saab explains, "Pilots equipped with Targo will be able to better locate, track, iden- tify and engage air and ground targets, as the system provides situational awareness and easier engagement options. A helmet mounted visor displays flight information such as altitude and air speed, as well as cueing targets and supplying supporting tracking data to the pilot." Aspects of the integration of the WAD and the HUD have been reported on by

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