In an experiment reminiscent of Jimmy Doolittle’s trailblazing instrument blind flight in 1929, researchers at Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) have conducted a full takeoff and landing flight of their testbed fly-by-wire Bell 205 helicopter controlled by a pilot completely “under the hood” and receiving all his visual cues via a helmet-mounted enhanced synthetic vision system (ESVS). By combining video and computer-generated input, the device presents aviators with a sense of situational awareness by integrating electronic visual input with helmet-mounted sensors, producing a more-or-less natural “picture” of the outside world that changes aspect as the subject changes head position. The NRC pilot, Guy Ramphal, flew the synthetic vision mission through takeoff, hover, cruise and landing. Others, all accompanied by a safety pilot controlling the Bell 205 via conventional controls and using unaugmented eyeballs, have followed in Ramphal’s wake.

To make possible the world’s first complete artificial-vision mission, the NRC’s Bell 205 used several control augmentation systems, among them attitude command and height and heading hold. Making use of what researchers freely concede to be first-generation, relatively low-resolution graphics, pilots were able to navigate the aircraft to within two meters of a desired location using only artificial terrain, sensor and navigation inputs. The view as seen by pilots more closely resembles a monochromatic schematic of the ground, instead of the natural “trees, rivers and cows in the field” type of resolution provided by large ground-based simulators. Nevertheless, grosser ground features and terrain variations are shown in a convincing, real-world way. Despite the resolution limitations, “the helmet-mounted graphics produced in the ESVS are superior to head-up displays and panel-mounted graphics,” reported NRC team leader and head engineer Sion Jennings. “That’s because the ESVS is able to display the virtual terrain well to the sides of the aircraft, not just straight ahead. The helmet-mounted sight has a unique ‘look-around’ capability.”