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No melting moments for Icarus

The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) has developed Icarus, an advanced real-time cockpit instrument display system to aid post-crash analysis. According to DERA, the system facilitates "rapid assessment" of black box data. It allows data to be visualized rapidly in real-time using a dynamic system rather than dealing with traditional black box data presented as traces or lists of numer-ical values.

DERA technology is helping post-crash evaluation. (Photo courtesy of BAE Systems.)

The package, which uses the graphical software expertise of TENET Systems, will accelerate the process of incident investigation and make the state of the aircraft clear at all stages of the flight, according to DERA. Data input to Icarus can be either extracted from the black box flight recorder or transmitted via a telemetry downlink from the aircraft, thus enabling the display of instrument readings on the simulated cockpit screen in real time.

Barry Chamberlain, DERA's Manager, Accident Data Recorder Systems, said that the main advantage of the Icarus system is the rapid assimilation of behavior and events associated with an aircraft involved in an accident or incident. The black box data can be provided to investigators "in the field," which can aid the management of the crash site and help focus the investigation. He adds that the system is flexible and reconfigurable in that it could
be used as a debriefing tool for pilot training, where complex maneuvers can be relayed one stage at a time, allowing instructors to evaluate pilot performance.

DERA is also developing a synthetic vision system for pilots, demonstrating it in a fast jet that was flown by a pilot relying only on DERA-developed sensor information displayed in a
high-tech helmet. The system was demonstrated in a specially equipped Tornado military aircraft called TIARA (Tornado Integrated Avionics Research Aircraft) and used to test a visually coupled system (VCS), which relays information from the outside world overlaid with aircraft performance data to the pilot's helmet.

Initial trial flights were conducted at medium and low level during daylight. To simulate night flying, a visor shroud was used to remove all external cues, including flight instruments, from the pilot. According to DERA, the VCS aims to assist pilots of future combat aircraft flying by day or night, improving their situational awareness through use of synthetic vision. Having, effectively, a monochromatic TV picture of the outside world on the helmet allows aircraft to be flown at low altitudes at night without relying on active sensors and will ultimately contribute to developing a future 'closed cockpit aircraft.' These early sorties have proved that it is possible to fly a fast jet aircraft at low altitudes using VCS for terrain avoidance. TIARA project test pilot Graham Archer, said: "Situational awareness is very important and obviously difficult to maintain at night. Anything that assists us like this synthetic vision system has the potential to be of enormous value."

Developed by DERA avionics engineers, the TIARA VCS uses a high slave rate sensor and a head-tracking system to provide the pilot with an image of the outside world projected onto a binocular helmet-mounted display. By using a sensor capable of high acceleration rates and fast continuous movement, the fully integrated system can track fast head movements and provide an image that is accurately overlaid on the helmet. In addition to the sensor image, information such as aircraft airspeed, altitude, and attitude are presented to the pilot through the HMD to eliminate the need to look inside the cockpit for critical flight data. According to the agency, further work to optimize the system is required to determine if a VCS could ever replace the traditional fixed FLIR/NVG (forward-looking infrared/night vision goggles) configuration and to evaluate other applications for VCS.

The agency has also carried out some trials of a fully integrated IRST (infrared search and track) system designed to passively acquire and track airborne targets. Other systems being tested and evaluated on TIARA include advanced experimental electro-optical sensors and experimental sensors designed to identify air and ground-based targets. TIARA is also involved in the development and evaluation of sensor data fusion algorithms, which bring together data from multiple onboard and offboard sensors to provide a single, cohesive tactical picture to the pilot.

Stuart Birch

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