Mercury tests zero-visibility synthetic vision

Low or zero visibility landings, or brownouts, are a critical safety issue facing medflight and military helicopter crews operating in arid conditions. Brownouts occur when a helicopter operates near the ground in a dry area and the dust cloud created from the rotor downwash reduces the pilot’s visibility. As a result, pilots cannot see nearby objects that provide the outside visual references necessary to control the aircraft near the ground during landings and take-offs. To deal with this problem, Mercury Computer Systems has developed a synthetic vision system that generates a computerized 3D terrain map drawn from databases and sensor readings, allowing pilots to “see” the surrounding terrain and obstacles whether or not they have visibility outside their window. Mercury’s Terrain Morphing Engine incorporates sensor measurements that are captured and updated in real time by on-board laser, radio-frequency or acoustic range sensors. This technology allows pilots to visualize complicated sensor outputs in an immediately intuitive format. The Real-Time Terrain Morphing technology shows the terrain database in gray and areas that have been mapped and validated by the sensors in green. Mercury recently announced that it was selected by BAE Systems to provide the Synthetic Vision display for a rotorcraft landing system. Flight tests are expected to begin in 2008.