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NASA Helps Clearing The Fog

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the metaverse dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program wants to cut fatal accident rates by 80 percent over the next ten years. To reach this goal, NASA researchers used "tunnel-in-the-sky" synthetic vision systems (SVS) in recent flights on a Gulfstream V over Reno, Nevada. A guest pilot for Aviation Week & Space Technology (AWST) went onboard and writes that 'NASA Team Brings Synthetic Vision to Maturity.' He was able to see that SVS concepts, such as voice-controlled synthetic vision displays, a runway incursion protection system, database integrity monitoring technology, and enhanced vision sensors meshed with SVS images, were really effective in eliminating low-visibility-induced accidents. However, NASA doesn't say anything about the availability of SVS for commercial airlines. This summary contains more details and illustrations about key SVS concepts."

2 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What about after landing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It depends on the aircraft. Certain aircraft, like the 747-400, are certified for zero-zero (visibility and ceiling) flight. More commonly, however, is a minimum visibility requirement (50-50 IIRC).

    When I was working for a regional airline out of Midway in Chicago, the pilots used a gentleman's club called "The Lusty Lady" near the end of the runway to make their "go no-go" decision. If they could see it on approach, they had good enough visibility, otherwise they had to go around and/or fly to another destination.

  2. Re:Tunnel-in-the-sky already exists, it's just bet by TurretMaster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As I get it, the point is not that the position information is more accurate,as it still comes from the same mix of radio beacons, inertial navigation systems an GPS datas. It is just that the data is more readable for the pilot.

    Yet i'm not sure it's more useful: Commercial airliners are _all_ equiped with "Flight directors", with seems to be the best info a pilot could get. It is displayed as two bars on the artificial horizon, and tells the pilot which way he should move the commands to follow in the best possible way the planned route, heading, vertical speed, ILS, speed, whatever the pilot chose to follow.

    It uses derivates to the second degree of the raw position data to compute intercept path and anticipations, and following it is a breeze : just keep the cross centered, and you'll get a smooth, perfect trajectory. Cross up, you pull until it's centered. Cross left, bank left until centered. No brain required.

    I'm not sure fancy graphics would be quite as reliable or useful: have you ever tried following a tunnel thing in some flight simulator ? It's much harder than stupidly keeping a cross centered, especially after a long trancoceanic flight ;-)