Alaskan flight trials of a synthetic vision system for instrument landings of a piston twin aircraft

Stanford University has developed a low-cost prototype synthetic vision system and flight tested it onboard general aviation aircraft. The display aids pilots by providing an 'out the window' view, making visualization of the desired flight path a simple task. Predictor symbology provides guidance on straight and curved paths presented in a 'tunnel- in-the-sky' format. Based on commodity PC hardware to achieve low cost, the Tunnel Display system uses differential GPS (typically from Stanford prototype Wide Area Augmentation System hardware) for positioning and GPS-aided inertial sensors for attitude determination. The display has been flown onboard Piper Dakota and Beechcraft Queen Air aircraft at several different locations. This paper describes the system, its development, and flight trials culminating with tests in Alaska during the summer of 1998. Operational experience demonstrated the Tunnel Display's ability to increase flight- path following accuracy and situational awareness while easing the task instrument flying.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.