Fighter pilots of the future will be able to 鈥榮ee鈥� in the dark, target
their weapons, and check flight instruments simply by gazing through their
visors, thanks to an all-in-one helmet under development in Britain. GEC
Ferranti of Edinburgh is heading a three-company consortium developing the
helmet, called Crusader.
Today鈥檚 pilots have nightsight thanks to night-vision goggles which
detect infrared light and present an enhanced image of the darkened scene
ahead to the pilot in visible light. Night-vision goggles are usually attached
to the helmet and suspended in front of the pilot鈥檚 eyes and so give only
a narrow view of the scene.
Also, because the goggles are heavy, they strain the wearer鈥檚 neck and
are potentially dangerous if a pilot ejects. Mark Willbourn of GEC Ferranti
says that until now all the technology in fighter pilots鈥� helmets has been
simply 鈥榓dded on鈥�, making helmets heavier and more cumbersome.
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The new helmet, Willbourn says, will be the first to superimpose enhanced
night-vision images directly onto the scene viewed by the wearer. Image
intensifiers mounted on the top of the helmet will feed their enhanced images
into projectors in the 鈥榗heeks鈥� which shine the images onto the inside
of the visor.
The helmet will also be the first to display flight details 鈥� such as
horizon bars, speed and weapons-aiming grids 鈥� on the inside of visor. GEC
Ferranti 鈥� in partnership with Gentex of Carbondale, Pennsylvania, and Pilkington
Optronics of St Asaph, Wales 鈥� decided to redesign helmets from scratch
to incorporate all the features now available without adding unnecessarily
to their weight.
GEC Ferranti鈥檚 Gaertner Research Division in Norwalk, Connecticut, is
to build a tracking system within the cockpit which determines the exact
position of the pilot鈥檚 head by detecting signals from light-emitting diodes
on the helmet.
