Israeli electronics specialist Elbit Systems is presenting a wide range of its pilot situation awareness capabilities that can be applied to civil and military uses. Several of them are being demonstrated “live” here at Farnborough (Hall 1 Stand C14).
ClearVision is an enhanced flight vision system that covers the full flight envelope, providing enhanced and synthetic vision on a head-up display to aid with operations by day or night in extreme weather or degraded visibility situations. The HUD fuses flight guidance symbology with high-resolution imagery from the ClearVision EVS sensors, which are packed into a single unit covering several spectral bands, and with data from the ClearVision SVS synthetic vision system, which draws on a database of terrain and obstacles.
As a result, ClearVision provides flight crews of both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with greatly improved situational awareness, and also promotes greater “eyes out” flying by reducing the dependence on landing aids. ClearVision also permits the reduction of landing minima.
While the system was initially developed with the business jet market in mind, it has also been applied to helicopters, the EVS sensor group providing a 35-degree field of view. Elbit also offers an LVL (low visibility landing) system for helicopter crews, presenting earth-referenced symbology in a helmet-mounted display to improve situational awareness in degraded visual environments, such as brownouts and whiteouts.
Other Elbit systems include the SkyVis, a commercially certifiable system that combines helmet-mounted display capabilities with a daytime head-up display, and Skylens, a ski goggle-like display for use with ClearVision systems.
Alongside training, intelligence-gathering and UAV systems, Elbit is also promoting its range of self-protection systems for aircraft and helicopters. The latest of these is Mini-Music, a lightweight and compact DIRCM (directional infrared countermeasures) system that can be installed on small- and medium-sized platforms.
Latest CoMPASS unveiled
Elbit has chosen Farnborough to launch the latest member of its CoMPASS sensor payload. Known as DCoMPASS FHD iMEP (integrated mission equipment package), the system is an all-in-one turret that not only incorporates advanced sensors, but also integrates digital moving map, data link, video recorder and navigation systems. All this is incorporated into the size/weight/power constraints of a standard 15-inch, 88-pound EO/IR payload. By combining the systems into one unit with open architecture, Elbit has facilitated the installation of DCoMPASS FHD iMEP as an upgrade for older aircraft.
