Hud

Is anybody aware...is it even being discussed or developed...any information out there at all regarding a relatively economical Heads Up Display suitable for experimental aircraft possibly coming our way over the next few years?

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"
RV-8A empennage complete....lusting for it to be "HUD equipped"

Eastern Avionics

Eastern Avionics had one advertised several years ago. The only problem I saw was that it was French! May try it on my next 8, but Eastern has removed it from their online site.

To do a HUD right for GA is tough. I'm just taking some baby steps looking into the technology to try to work around some of the problems. Here are two biggies as I see them:

1) They obstruct your view. VFR requires see & avoid. How do you see and avoid with pretty graphics in the way? One of the first lessons we're taught is wipe the bugs off your windshield. A small bug can easily hide an aircraft a couple of miles away. Even two relatively sluggish aircraft can easily have a closing speed of 300 mph if heading right at each other. An RV and a Lancair is more like 500mph. If you spot it 1 mile out, that give you about 7 seconds to do something inteligent. Military aircraft have radar...that helps.

2) They can be very disorienting for IFR flight. It's tough enough when all you have is instruments to stare at. It's much tougher when you're instruments are saying one thing, and funky IMC imply another (but incorrect) attitude.

In addition, it would be very nice to incorporate some sort of synthetic vision. At least terrain awareness. Once again, not trivial unless you want to project a huge image all over the cockpit. Headmount w/tracking is a possibility, but do you really want to wear another thing on your head? I don't want to go there.

I think you'll see more and more start hitting the market over the next few years, but they'll be "gadgets". I think the type of HUD I'd personally install in my own aircraft is still 10 years out at least and will probably be fairly expensive.

If you're happy with status quo, there are a couple out there. "Nomad" comes to mind. $5000 or thereabouts. A little pricey but not outrageous. Totally not what I envision for the future, though.

edit: To be fair, I think Kollsman is working on a system that looks promising. They're targetting 2007, I think. The cost is probably astronomical and likely wouldn't be appropriate for an RV, but at least small parts of the industry are starting to move in what I think is the right direction.

Very tough for GA

Rick,

I used to develop systems that used HUDs for a living. To get a HUD that works well requires a lot of "stuff", the hardware on its own will be very tricky to fit in an RV. You probably know that a HUD collimates the display at infinity - you look through the display, focus on the world beyond, and see the display in focus. To do that requires 2 heavy glass plates with a large lens and a CRT to produce the image (could probably use an LCD now), all this optical stuff is heavy (say 30lbs?) and takes a lot of real estate. Mounting it in the right place will be a challenge. Your eye also has to be in just the right place to make the most of the display, an RV panel/canopy might also be too close. Let's assume you are a resourceful homebuilder and can solve these problems.

Now you have to generate the image that will be displayed on the HUD. The processor driving the display needs to be carefully matched, and the sensors providing the data need to work with the minimum of latency to make the display useable. If the display lags reality by even a tenth of a second it will be noticeable. If the data is not refreshed on the display quickly enough it will be jerky and the usefulness will degrade. Again, all these issues are solveable, but it can take a while (read, be costly).

How much do you want to pay? I'm guessing the hardware alone with be tens of thousands, plus your share of software development costs - a similar amount? A cheap system just won't be worthwhile, it will still cost a lot and won't give you any of the benefits. As a matter of interest, most combat aircraft don't use the HUD as a primary flight instrument - its not reliable enough.

Sorry to be rather negative, but I can't see a "cheap" system providing useful performance for some time to come.

Pete

Someone developed an experemental HUD for the Dynon D-10 about a year ago. I'm not sure, but I think I recall he ran into a problem with not having a way to adjust the brightness for daytime use. Would love to see this one come to fruition! Here are some pics of the display...

Dynon HUD

Can you contact me off board with more details?

Thanks,
Robby

Focus

Bunker Hill said:

Someone developed an experemental HUD for the Dynon D-10 about a year ago. I'm not sure, but I think I recall he ran into a problem with not having a way to adjust the brightness for daytime use. Would love to see this one come to fruition! Here are some pics of the display...

Click to expand...

Does this one focus on infinity?

Not so fast

"As a matter of interest, most combat aircraft don't use the HUD as a primary flight instrument - its not reliable enough."

Uhh......we do in the Navy.

Tobin

uhhhh... we did in the Airforce too.

Apples and Oranges

penguin said:

.......How much do you want to pay? I'm guessing the hardware alone with be tens of thousands, plus your share of software development costs - a similar amount.......... but I can't see a "cheap" system providing useful performance for some time to come...........Pete

Click to expand...

Pete,
I hear what you are saying but am inclined by nature towards wishful thinking. You seem well versed on the technical complexities involved, far more than I ever will be. However and inarguably, technology is advancing at a breathtaking rate and will at times take interesting and unexpected turns. For instance, a recent aviation magazine ran an article describing a very smart individual who is able ...by using off the shelf parts.....to cob together a very workable FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) and make it available to general aviation for $18,000. Certainly, that cost is no small potatoes but is not wildly expensive either. It is easily comparable in cost to some EFIS displays that more than a few higher end experimentals are sporting on the instrument panel two at a time! I don't pretend to understand the economics much less the formidable technical problems involved in introducing an inexpensive HUD to the world of sport aviation, but nevertheless, remain "hopeful." Am I tilting at windmills? Perhaps, perhaps not. My experience with HUD's is limited to advanced flight simulator games for the home computer. The armchair utility of a HUD is instantly appreciated.
I wonder how those RV builders with real honest to goodness military flying time behind a true HUD would feel about installing one in their RV, assuming the price was right.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"

Rick,
There was a French one about 15 years ago sold for sailplanes that was LCD based, you just looked through the screen. It made it into several high-end gliders. I can't find an on-line pic. though....

This one is a reflective type...

http://www.hawkinsassoc.com/hudis1.htm

gil in Tucson.....

Rick6a said:

Pete,
I hear what you are saying ... but nevertheless, remain "hopeful." Am I tilting at windmills? Perhaps, perhaps not. My experience with HUD's is limited to advanced flight simulator games for the home computer. The armchair utility of a HUD is instantly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Rick, I'm not disagreeing with you - if someone were to develop a HUD for the price of a typical EFIS setup I would be in the queue also. I was trying to point out some of the development problems that make HUDs more of a challenge than other avionics. A real HUD is a great device (the LCD device for sailplanes was not really a HUD, as it was not focused at infinity), and are really easy to fly with. Maybe the most fruitful development direction is helmet mounted displays that the most modern military aircraft are using - doesn't need such heavy optics?

Pete

Reheat said:

uhhhh... we did in the Airforce too.

Click to expand...

Although you may have used the HUD as the primary instrument, the aircraft was probably "certified" with the head down instruments as the primary instruments. The may have been something about regularly cross referencing the HUD to the head downs in the natops/dash 1/topic 15?

HUD as Primary Flight Reference

penguin said:

Although you may have used the HUD as the primary instrument, the aircraft was probably "certified" with the head down instruments as the primary instruments. The may have been something about regularly cross referencing the HUD to the head downs in the natops/dash 1/topic 15?

Click to expand...

As of at least 5 years ago, the HUD in the Block 40 and 50 F-16C's was certified as a primary flight instrument. It is no longer required that you cross reference the other heads down instruments (Not gonna get in a discussion about whether it is good TECHNIQUE to cross check the heads down stuff...). Dash 1 was changed to reflect that as well...

John Erickson
RV-10 #40208 Wings (deployed)