Technology:
Universal Avionics Vision 1 We're First to Fly UASC's Vision 1 Synthetic Vision System
Flying into Big Bear City Airport (L35) last Thursday in the
left seat of Universal Avionics Systems Corp.'s Raytheon Super
King Air 350 fitted with Vision 1 provided Show News with
an exclusive glimpse into the next generation of terrain awareness
technology. More than five years in development, Vision 1 promises
to elevate situational awareness to a much higher level than is
possible using today's Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS)
boxes. This was the first time anyone outside of company employees
or FAA certification officials had flown UASC's 890R 8-by-9-inch
LCD displays with Vision 1 and 3-D TAWS, according to Paul de
Herrera, UASC's director of marketing.
Vision 1 is a Synthetic Vision System technology that provides
a three-dimensional, VFR-like view of terrain contours on both
the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Navigation Display (ND).
It uses the same sensors and digital terrain elevation database
as a TAWS box, but it's equipped with a high-powered graphics
computer that can create the two 3-D terrain depictions moving
in real time.
The PFD pilot's-eye view provides a VFR-like window through which
the crew can see images of terrain in IFR or night conditions.
The system also provides an exocentric view of the aircraft on
the ND, in essence the view of a wingman, stepped up high at the
4:30 position of the lead aircraft. The ND exocentric view of
the aircraft provides a wide-angle, "big picture" 3-D
view of the aircraft's flight plan route between each waypoint,
including all of the fixes on an instrument approach. This enables
the crew to visualize the intended flight path ahead of the aircraft's
position, as if it were plotted on a 3-D sectional chart.
The advantages of Vision 1 become most apparent when operating
from airports located near mountainous terrain. That's why we
chose Big Bear City for the demo flight and made our approach
from the south. Inbound from Banning Pass to the airport, there
are several high-elevation ridge lines and peaks near ski resorts
that must be avoided, as well as Mt. San Gorgonio, the tallest
peak in Southern California. Vision 1's 890R PFD provided realistic,
conformal terrain imagery as we made our approach, and the ND
enabled us to visualize upcoming legs in the flight plan relative
to a 3-D sectional chart. When we intentionally approached the
terrain in order to trigger a TAWS alert, the PFD reverted to
a conventional blue/brown ADI background to focus our attention
on the plan-view TAWS chart that popped up on the ND. The terrain
alert was accompanied by UASC's signature flashing star, crash
site indicator. A magenta-colored flight path vector pointed to
the precise location of the impending terrain hazard.
Only after we flew away from the terrain hazard would Vision 1
allow us to reselect the terrain background on the PFD. A team
of seven FAA evaluation pilots, among other government officials,
were quite insistent on this operating protocol in order to eliminate
any possibility of "hazardously misleading information."
UASC's 890R displays are due for certification first quarter 2004 and full
Vision 1 capabilities are slated for certification late next year.
A full line of UASC's current products and emerging technologies
are on display at Booth 2681.
