OPPORTUNITIES OF ELECTRO-OPTIC VISUALIZATION PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT

Abstract

The article covers the following issues: the development and practical application of airborne electro-optic systems in the civil aviation aircraft. They provide flight visual information for the pilot day and night in visual and instrument weather conditions. The legal documents establishing the requirements for the application of this type of electro-optic systems in aircraft are presented. The classification of airborne electro-optic systems, commonly named as electronic visualization systems is analyzed. The ways of implementing the recommendations in their construction are considered. There have been analyzed the possibilities of systems of different classes: enhanced vision systems (EVS), synthetic vision systems (SVS), combine vision systems (CVS) and on-board vision systems with advanced visualization features, Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS). It is determined that nowadays EVS systems are considered to be the potential application systems. In order to analyze the possibilities of practical application of such systems in the issues of flight safety at low altitude and landing, flight experiments of the system installed on a light helicopter were conducted. The research introduces the results of flight experiments on the practical work of television and infrared (IR) viewing channels of a promising typical system in simple and complex observation conditions. Based on the results of flight experiments, a conclusion can be made about the relevance of practical application of electronic visualization systems on board the aircraft to ensure flight safety. It is determined that the systems can be used in flight both for land observation tasks and ensuring a safe flight. When flying the helicopter at low altitude and landing procedures the pilot should use visual information from the rear hemisphere of the lower tail unit by electro-optical visualization system. It was elicited that in the infrared (IR) channel and the fast rotation of visualization system camera located there is a corresponding delay of vision direction and the actual direction of flight. The vision is blurred. In the mode of the infrared spectrum information there appears a filtering problem of interference caused by helicopter engine exhaust gases and snow in the sector of observation. It makes it more difficult to obtain the benefits of visualization systems vision in adverse weather conditions. The conclusions indicated that perspective visualization systems for IR channels require additional use of methods and algorithms to ensure high-definition vision.