Testing and Using SVS

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Testing and Using SVSПодпись: The TIFS aircraft is a modified C-131 Samaritan military aircraft, which is itself based on a Convair 580 turboprop airliner. It was built in the 1950s and converted to a flying simulator in the late 1960s. TIFS has two cockpits. One is used to test new developments. The other (standard) cockpit can take over at any point if necessary. This double cockpit is an important feature, because it allows a test pilot safely and repeatedly to push a system all the way to failure, which is risky to do in a conventional flight test, especially near the ground. The research cockpit can be programmed to make the plane fly like other kinds of aircraft. In its test flights, it has doubled for a variety of airliners, experimental aircraft, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, and even the Space Shuttle. As well as simulating other aircraft, it also is used to test new avionics systems. In this case, the second cockpit can be replaced by a nose section containing the new avionics, and the research pilot sits at a crew station in the aircraft's cabin. Pilots say it is more realistic to fly TIFS than a simulator on the ground because it sounds, feels, and performs like the real airplane. The TIFS plane entered service as a military transport on March 22, 1955, so it cele-brated its fiftieth anniversary in 2005. к J
In 1999, synthetic vision was tested in flight by a modified C-131 military aircraft named the Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS). For the tests, TIFS was fitted with screens to try a variety of dif­ferent images and data. The research flights were made out of Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina.

Подпись: О A pilot testing SVS in 1999 was able to compare the virtual world on his screen with a view from the cockpit.Testing and Using SVSПодпись: — SEE ALSO: Testing and Using SVSResearch pilots using the synthetic vision system reported that they soon forgot they were looking at a computer-generated image and not at the real world.

System designers are already thinking about other ways in which SVS might be used in the future. One possible application is in air traffic control systems at airports.

Airport traffic con­trollers work in a con­trol room that looks out across the airport, but some parts of an airport may be obscured by buildings or bad weather. SVS could provide con­trollers with a clear, computer-generated view of the entire air­port in all conditions. Although synthet­ic vision has been developed for civil aviation, military forces also are interest­ed in the systems. Synthetic vision already has been flight tested in military airplanes and helicopters.

• Air Traffic Control • Avionics

• Cockpit • Global Positioning System • Pilot