A landing and departure system for aircraft, of particular utility in making blind landings at an airport. The system incorporates a closed circuit video system which provides a video display in an aircraft of a detailed model or mockup of the airport for use by the pilot in making the blind landing. In the system, the video camera and model mockup of the airport are moved relative to each other so that the line of sight view of the model airport, as seen by the camera, is the same as the line of sight view which would appear with clear visibility through the cockpit window to the eye of the pilot. The video camera is focused on the model and is movable along a track toward or away from the model in proportion to the approach or departure of the aircraft and simultaneously the model and camera are synchronously moved on tilt and rotating axes to provide a relationship between the camera and model airport in direct proportion to the position and altitude of the aircraft relative to the airport. Means are also provided to manipulate the camera in response to actual roll, pitch and yaw of the aircraft and to vary the video image accordingly. Appropriate ground and airborne electronic control means, such as radar, radio, continuous wave system, etc. are utilized to sense and move the elements of the system. Also, information, such as actual elevation, distance to the runway and other critical information may be transmitted to the aircraft and displayed on the marginal edges of the video picture.
A cockpit-mounted cathode ray tube presents to the pilot a visual equivalent of the approach/landing during obscure visibility of an aircraft which contains a miniature illuminated runway that is being "approached" by a video camera that reproduces the position and position changes of the aircraft with respect to the real runway. Ground-based instrument landing system elements are used to air derive radio information to secure the operation of the device.
To permit panning and tilting of the foreground camera when composite images are being produced by the color separation overlay or chroma-key technique, signals representing the panning and tilting motions of the foreground camera are used to control the movement of the background image in front of the background camera in two mutually perpendicular directions.
A pilot training simulator system is disclosed that simulates a predetermd vehicle and the operational environment pertinent to the vehicle in such manner that the pilot being trained in the system may be responsive to the realistic impressions effected by this combination. Included in the system is a first subsystem for producing a video readout of various terrain and target scenes, a simulated vehicle cockpit second subsystem to which the terrain and target scenes are provided, and a third subsystem for providing a motion picture to the windshield of the simulated vehicle cockpit. A motion generator imparts realistic movements to the first subsystem and simulated vehicle cockpit, and console controls permit the manual operational control of both.
A system for enhancing navigation or surveillance in low visibility conditions is realized by employing one or more ultraviolet radiation sources, a receiver which is capable of producing output signals from which a two dimensional image of the received radiation can be constructed, and a display device for displaying such image. In one preferred embodiment the ultraviolet radiation source is co-positioned with a critical marker such as a runway beacon or hazard beacon. The ultraviolet radiation emanates from the source, preferably modulated to form a repetitive, characteristic signal, propagates through the low visibility atmosphere, and received by the ultraviolet imaging receiver. In another preferred embodiment, an ultraviolet radiation source is placed at or near the ultraviolet imaging receiver, that is, onboard the same vehicle or at the same fixed location. One or more reflectors are co-positioned with the critical markers. The reflector reflects or redirect an ultraviolet radiation signal, received from the source, back through the low visibility atmosphere to the ultraviolet imaging receiver whereby an image of the received radiation is presented to an operator by a display device. In another preferred embodiment, the reflector may be replaced with a transponder. The present invention permits a pilot, vehicle operator, air traffic controller, or other operator to perform navigation or surveillance tasks in low visibility conditions in similar manner to that employed under clear weather conditions.
