Helmet mounted display supporting helicopter missions during en route flight and landing

Abstract

Degraded visual environment is still a major problem for helicopter pilots especially during approach and landing. Particularly with regard to the landing phase, pilot's eyes must be directed outward in order to find visual cues as indicators for drift estimation. If lateral speed exceeds the limits it can damage the airframe or in extreme cases lead to a rollover. Since poor visibility can contribute to a loss of situation awareness and spatial disorientation, it is crucial to intuitively provide the pilot with the essential visual information he needs for a safe landing.With continuous technology advancement helmet-mounted displays (HMD) will soon become a spreading technology, because look through capability is an enabler to offer monitoring the outside view while presenting flight phase depending symbologies on the helmet display. Besides presenting primary flight information, additional information for obstacle accentuation or terrain visualization can be displayed on the visor. Virtual conformal elements like 3D pathway depiction or a 3D landing zone representation can help the pilot to maintain control until touchdown even during poor visual conditions. This paper describes first investigations in terms of both en route and landing symbology presented on a helmet mounted display system in the scope of helicopter flight trials with DLR's flying helicopter simulator ACT/FHS.

Review of conformal displays: more than a highway in the sky

“…Even so, in all studies evidence has been found that the head-up pathway concept could be superior to previous, nonconformal head-up solutions. 17 One of the most recent implementations of a tunnel-inthe-sky has been tested on a fully head-tracked HMD 32 (see Fig. 6).…”