Flight Test Information
January 2002
Surface Guidance and Synthetic Vision on Boeing Technology Demonstrator –
ATC engineers, working with Flight Dynamics demonstrated head-up and
head-down surface guidance and synthetic vision formats on the
Boeing 737-900 Technology Demonstrator. The Boeing team
responsible for the Technology Demonstrator was very pleased with
the ability of Rockwell Collins to integrate with various systems and
provide several technology demonstrations. The demonstrations included:
- SGS on HGS4000
- FLIR imagery on HGS4000 (FLIR image from CMC or Max-Viz)
- SGS Detailed Taxi Maps - including FMC taxi paths with holds
- SVIS High resolution Terrain MFD - with warnings colors
- SVIS Takeoff PFD and transition to in-flight
- SVIS PFD with Tunnel and Terrain
- HDD - FLIR image displayed in the cockpit (FLIR image from CMC or Max-Viz)
- MMR - GLS autoland
- Wireless LAN (based on Collins STC on AA 777)
The involvement of ATC in this activity is part of the NASA Synthetic
Vision Program effort. The 737-900 Technology Demonstrator is Boeing’s
first flying technology demonstrator in ten years and has invested $1
million in the program. The number one 737-900 (YD501) is being used
to demonstrate and evaluate enabling technologies and systems to Boeing
engineers and executives, the regulatory authorities, customers (the airlines)
and the media.
December 2001
Synthetic Vision Information System Phase 2 Surface Guidance System Taxi Tests –
The SVIS team has successfully demonstrated head-down display formats for
supporting airport surface operations. Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology
Center (ATC) was the flight test coordinator for the three day test series
at Memphis (KMEM). The tests included over 10 hours of pilot evaluations of
FMS-based taxi route entry, Flight Dynamics Head Up Surface Guidance System,
and ATC prototype formats for head down display of airport surface maps and
taxi routes. The Memphis tests were conducted on BBJ1 (737-800 Business Jet)
following a system shakedown at Boeing Field (KBFI) earlier in the month.
The special nature of these taxi tests allowed the SVIS team to identify discrepancies
with the Rockwell Collins MMR differential position calculations and provide
feedback to ATS. The team is now preparing for tests on the Boeing 737-900
Technology Demonstrator and has shipped display hardware and the flight test
pallet to Boeing for installation on the airplane.
September 2001
Synthetic Vision Information System (SVIS) flight test – The SVIS team completed three weeks of flight testing aboard the NASA 757 ARIES transport research aircraft. Flights were staged from Colorado Springs with approach and departure procedures conducted at Eagle, Colorado. During the flight testing, Rockwell Collins demonstrated a wireframe terrain display on a Flight Dynamics HUD and head-down display prototypes of perspective terrain and pathway displays on a cockpit prototype display. Rockwell Collins, in conjunction with NASA, developed formats that were evaluated by six airline pilots and two NASA pilots. Over 140 approaches and 50 hours of test data were collected. The outcome of the testing indicated that a constant descending curved approach in Eagle valley was executed to Runway 7. The clearance (rarely accepted in line flying) and the display formats were readily accepted by the test pilots.
AFRL TAPGuide Program Autonomous Landing Capability Add-On – ATC has been offered a $250,000 addition to the Dual-Use Science and Technology Terrain Awareness and Pathway Guidance (TAPGuide) program. The TAPGuide program was originally planned to evaluate Synthetic Vision technology on a head-up display for military transport operations. The modification will fund the addition of a head-down synthetic vision display to the flight tests. It will also fund Rockwell Scientific to develop image feature extraction algorithms for both infrared and synthetic imagery.
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