Enhanced vision subject of proposed FAR update

Some have called enhanced vision the single most important advance in aviation safety since the introduction of airborne weather radar more than 40 years a

By Stephen Pope

February 4, 2008

Some have called enhanced vision the single most important advance in aviation safety since the introduction of airborne weather radar more than 40 years ago. And for good reason. Enhanced vision systems (EVS)–infrared cameras and/or millimeter-wave radar married to a HUD or MFD in the cockpit– provide pilots with outside visual reference from the start of taxi through takeoff, cruise and approach, right down to the landing flare. They let the pilot see the runway ahead, other aircraft and vehicles, and even terrain and obstacles in nearly all types of weather, day or night.

Gulfstream pilots who have flown with the FAA-approved Kollsman EVS, which projects a cooled FLIR camera image on a raster-capable Honeywell HUD, are effusive in their praise of the system. More than 40 such systems are awaiting installation at Gulfstream and production has been increased to meet demand for the $500,000 sensor package, now flying aboard larger Gulfstreams.

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