An Improved Helicopter Display That Correlates Flight Symbols with Flight Imagery

"In visually guided flight mediated by a synthetic imaging system, merely depicting the terrain is inadequate to support safe flight of Army helicopters at low altitudes. Superimposed geo-referenced symbology to is predicted provide the informationnecessary for near-ground safe flight. MTI will design and demonstrate terrain-overlay symbology that will support safe flight and will determine the cost of building a symbology system for flight test. MTI has over fifteen years experience in Armyflight simulation and flight symbology development. Nevertheless, MTI's will review literature and interview pilots to identifying information requirements for flight in demanding environments. MTI will then design candidate symbol sets that provide theinformation needed for safe and sure helicopter flight. The key innovation in MTI's approach will be to design an efficient set of symbology that augments but does not duplicate terrain information sources. After review by pilots and modification, thefinal symbology set will be rendered in animated form and shown superimposed over dynamic terrain imagery, for a variety of helicopter flight maneuvers. MTI will prepare a plan for both simulation and flight testing of the symbology. MTI will alsodevelop a preliminary hardware and software design and a cost estimate for the flight test version to be built during Phase II. This display will expand the operating environment for other military and