The following is taken from Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, May 11-24 2015. Once in two months, we replicate this type of informative write–up in this column to educate active and non-active pilots on technological advancement/upgrade in modern aircraft/jetliners.
For the pilots who wish to remain sound and up-to-date with cutting-edge technology in aircraft, we encourage active reading of all literature/narratives found online and in magazines. This is the only way to keep abreast with the exponential growth of aviation technology.
Gone are the days when autopilot on an aircraft like the Douglas DC-10 was considered a miracle, and pilots were over excited about it. Today, even a small aircraft like the Cessna 172 can be equipped with autopilot and GPS navigation system.
Virtual reality will make its way into commercial airliner flight decks in the next five years as part of a voluntary safety upgrade movement spurred by a government/industry Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST).
Synthetic vision, a 3-D rendering of runways, terrain and obstacles that gives pilots a sunny-day virtual view of the flightpath, is already standard for new general aviation and business jet cockpit displays and even for many portable devices, but it is not yet available in the cockpits of modern jetliners.
Along with an “optical flow” that artificially creates a sense of aircraft movement, synthetic vision systems (SVS) can also include energy awareness cues, including a flightpath vector and acceleration/speed-error indicator-aids safety advocates say can help eliminate attitude excursions that may lead to upsets and loss-of-control accidents.
CAST, a grouping of FAA, airline and industry safety officials, was formed in 1998 to tackle reducing the risks of fatal accidents on U.S. commercial airliners by 80% by 2008, a goal it largely met. CAST regrouped in 2011, with the aim of cutting commercial airline fatality rates by an additional 50% by 2020. Loss of control has been by far the largest underlying factor in fatal accidents since 2003.
The group analysed 18 airline loss-of-control accidents or incidents in 2003-12 and determined that a “virtual day” visual meteorological conditions (VMC) display, aka SVS, could have aided pilots to avoid 17 of the 18 events where there were no external references to help orient the aircraft.
In part because of the optical flow of the elements in a scene, SVS provides an intuitive sense of orientation, motion and ground closure rate compared with the legacy blue-over-brown attitude display. By adding energy guidance to an SVS display, CAST determined that the risk of a loss-of-control accident can be reduced by 16%, assuming 30% of the global airline fleet is equipped by 2035.
However, SVS technology, first FAA-certified for transport-category aircraft in 2006, has not yet made its way to airline cockpits, aside from a new aircraft with retrofit avionics upgrades. Manufacturers have some concerns that by offering synthetic vision without a mandate, it could appear that they have ignored an essential safety tool other sectors put in place years ago.
The CAST initiative solves that problem for OEMs; CAST endorsements have nearly the same clout as a mandate so airframers are apt to voluntarily implement them – in this case, installing SVS in the form of a virtual-day VMC display in the new aircraft by 2020.
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer have already committed to a separate CAST request to begin including the three energy-state cues into the primary flight display (PFD) information on new-build aircraft by 2018. However, before implementing the virtual-day-VMC display, Boeing and Airbus have asked for more guidance regarding implementation and the certification risks of doing so, a request the FAA is in the process of fulfilling via RTCA Special Committee 213 (SC213).
SC213 primarily develops consensus-based general and performance requirements as well as system performance verification guidelines for sensor-based systems, or with members representing a diverse mix of regulators, airframes and avionics providers. The FAA asked the group to devise minimum system performance standards for the virtual-day VMC displays by June 2016, a date that may be overly optimistic.
During the first discussion of the task at a meeting in Paris in mid-April, the complexities of the request and potential unintended consequences began to take shape. While simple in concept, implementation of the virtual-day VMC display is far from settled.
One preliminary concept includes a display of SV terrain and obstacles for all attitudes, a depiction of the runway of intended landing and recovery guidance that could give a pilot visual or aural cues as to which way to roll or pitch the aircraft to bring the wings back to level attitude. The virtual scene is to be available on the PFD at all times for both pilots.
Key elements to be determined through continued research include how to show unusual attitudes and whether recovery cues should be included; how best to show and measure the optical flow of the scene; the required minimum display size, field of regard, compression ratio and resolution; and what colour cues work best. Still open for debate is whether the VMC display would be shown on head-up displays.
One key point is whether the SVS, now certified as situational awareness aid only, would require more scrutiny if it becomes a pilot’s primary tool to recover from unusual attitudes.
Today, regulators require or recommend that the flight guidance in an upset attitude revert to blue-over-brown with arrow cues showing the direction to recover. However, some SVS developers say leaving the synthetic scene in place for all attitudes will give the pilot better situational awareness cues, either preventing the upset in the first place or helping to speed the recovery.
Source: AW&ST May 11-24, 2015
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