Ask any copilot of a HUD-equipped airplane what a low-visibility approach looks like, and the answer will be the same–no different from any other airplane. But that’s not because the HUD doesn’t help. It’s because traditionally HUDs have been installed only on the captain’s side, and their optics require the user to be sitting in front of the screen. Looking sideways at the display doesn’t work, with the result that however high-tech the airplane, the copilot’s view ahead is really no different from what it would be in a DC-3.
But now copilots have a champion in JetBlue, which has specified HUDs for both the captain and the copilot of the new Embraer 190 regional jet. Launch customer for the Brazilian airliner, the upstart airline has ordered 100 copies (with deliveries beginning later next year) and holds options on 100 more. Currently, JetBlue operates 60 non-HUD-equipped Airbus A320s, with a further 123 on order and options on an additional 50. In terms of numbers of aircraft ordered, JetBlue is Airbus’s fourth largest customer, and it may well be the largest customer for the Embraer 190.
