The need for night vision system in military helicopter has been recognized for many years now. Besides fixed FLIR and night vision goggles, helmet-mounted systems coupled with head-slaved IR sensor have been introduced during the last decade in modern attack helicopters. Monocular HMDs have been fielded on the AH-64 and used in operation. Human factors aspects pertaining to such night vision devices has been extensively reviewed and published. Though, full scale flight tests of binocular HMDs with integrated I2 and head coupled IR sensors have rarely been reported. A binocular helmet, with a 40 degree full overlap FOV has been developed under a contract of the French DGA. Two image intensifiers tubes located on each side of the head are integrated on the helmet, which also has full raster and stroke capacity. Both images are projected on the visor of the helmet and collimated to infinity. IR sensor imagery and navigation system are coupled to the helmet using an electro-magnetic head-tracker. Test flight of the helmet have been conducted by the French Flight Test Center on specially equipped Puma test-bed aircraft. Approximately 150 flight hours have been devoted to testing of the helmet, either with I2 and IR sensors.
Flight testing of a binocular bisensor HMD for helicopter: some human factors aspects
Helmet- and Head-Mounted Displays III ; 1998 ; Orlando,FL,USA
Proc. SPIE ; 3362
1998-08-11
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Flight testing of a binocular bisensor HMD for helicopter: some human factors aspects [3362-15]
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