Pilots are taught from the first day of flight training that flying an airplane is all about situational awareness–visualizing where they are in relation to the rest of the world. The task becomes more daunting when pilots lose visual reference to the ground, such as during IFR operations, because presented with nothing but two-dimensional graphics or text data, the visualization must take place in the pilot’s mind. When the cockpit workload is high, information overload can occur, resulting in reduced situational awareness.
To give pilots a better view, Rockwell Collins has released an improved Pro Line 4 avionics suite–called PrecisionPlus–mated to the Bombardier Challenger 604 to deliver the first in-service business aircraft avionics system with 3-D graphics. To write PrecisionPlus off as a mere software upgrade, however, would be to vastly understate the system’s impressive list of valuable features that Bombardier said “breaks new ground in the large business jet market.”
More In Avionics
