Helmet display symbology development for the JAST/IHAVS flight demonstration

Abstract

A notable effort within the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program is the Integrated Helmet Audio-Visual System (IHAVS) project. The objective of the JAST/IHAVS effort is to integrate an off-the-shelf helmet-mounted display, an interactive voice module and three-dimensional sound technology into a T/AV-8B attack aircraft for a flight demonstration program. As part of this effort, the Armstrong Laboratory's Aerospace Vision Laboratory was tasked to participate in the selection and design of the helmet-mounted display visual symbology sets, sensor imagery integration, and overall helmet-resident visual information concept. The Aerospace Visions Laboratory's Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator provides the only dynamic presentation of the IHAVS symbology and was used as a predemonstration tool to familiarize the project's test pilots with the symbologies and imagery in an interactive simulation. Besides providing a symbology and imagery interface representative of the IHAVS demonstration aircraft, additional symbol designs developed by Aerospace Vision Laboratory personnel were made available. The test pilots' subjective feedback from the simulator demonstrations is discussed and recommendations by the Aerospace Vision Laboratory team are presented.