Rockwell Collins is a leader in the display of synthetic vision in the flight deck. The display of a synthetic view of the world provides a significant improvement in safety, giving pilots a clear-weather view - even in bad weather.

Synthetic vision uses a database of the terrain around the aircraft to generate a 3-D view of the world. On the Primary Flight Display, the terrain view can be covered with a clear-day photograph of the ground to give a realisitic view of ground ahead of the aircraft. On the HUD, the terrain would be shown as a see-through grid that gives an impression of the terrain without obscuring it.