CHAPTER 9. Display Systems: 9.1. Situational Awareness
CHAPTER 9. Display Systems: 9.1. Situational Awareness
9.3.1 Primary
The primary displays relate directly to the control and navigation of the aircraft. and include attitude, position,
and deviation from nominal
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The basic flight instruments are located directly in front of the pilot in an internationally standardized (ICAO)
arrangement called the basic T.
Rate
Horizontal of
Situation Climb
Figure 50:
Basic T Instrument Configuration
The attitude instrument was originally just the artificial horizon, but as systems grew more complex it became
the ADI (Attitude Director Indicator)
An electromechanical version of this instrument is shown in the Figure 49. To relieve the pilot of the necessity
to scan several instruments during an approach, several functions have been added to the artificial horizon.
These include: Glide slope deviation indicator, speed deviation indicator, horizontal or localizer deviation in-
dicator and a radar altimeter/decision height indicator.
In addition, there are so-called Command bars which indicate the difference between the current attitude and
the attitude computed by the flight director required to put the aircraft back on course. Note: if the flight director
is coupled to the autopilot, this is the error information being fed to the autopilot.
In the split cue design coomands for the two axes are displayed separately.
The ADI is probably the most complex electromechanical aircraft display instrument ever developed.
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Figure 51:
Electromechanical ADI with
split cue Command Bars
Another version of the ADI is shown in Figure 50. This is a simplified ADI but it shows the single cue or
V bar command bars. These two bars move together. They move up or down to indicate the correct pitch
angle and they rotate to indicate the correct bank angle. The pilot simply banks and or pitches the aircraft to
keep the yellow triangle aircraft in the triangle formed by the lower edges of the command bars as shown by
the hatched triangle. In the figure, the flight director is commanding a climbing turn to the right.
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V bar
Command bars
Aircraft
Figure 52:
Simple ADI with Combined
Command Bars
The Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) started as two separate instruments. One was a radiomagnetic indi-
cator (RMI) which combined a compass with a couple of needles which showed the relative bearing to the VOR
or ADF stations which were being used. The other was a course deviation indicator (CDI) which indicated the
deviation from the desired course.
The HSI combines these two instruments and usually adds a display of the selected VOR radial and the distance
from the selected DME.
The altimeter and airspeed indicator are simple pointer on dial instruments.
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9.3.1.1 Secondary
Examples of secondary instruments are
a) engine status (turbine temperature, turbine/fan speed, oil temperature and pressure)
b) fuel status (quantity, rate of consumption)
c) electrical system status (voltage, current, frequency for AC)
These displays are necessary but are used for only a short time on each flight, for example, the engine oil pres-
sure and turbine temperature are needed only during engine start or when there is an abnormal condition in-
volving these quantities.
9.3.1.2 Tertiary
a) outside temperature, check lists
9.3.4.1 Requirements:
9.3.4.1.1 Viewing angle:
Since not all of the displays can be mounted directly in front of the pilot, some displays will necessarily be
viewed from an angle off the perpendicular. There is also may a requirement for the pilot to see the
copilots display and vice versa. Thus the greater angles from which the display can be seen clearly the
better. Typically this is specified as 60 horizontally and 35 vertically
9.3.4.1.2 Resolution:
One of the main strengths of the computer generated display is the ability to generate symbols and these
symbols may be rotated through any angle. Thus the resolution must be compatible. The CRT standard of
about 0.5 mm line width is a reasonable benchmark
9.3.4.1.4 Ruggedness:
9.3.4.1.5 Low price:
9.3.4.1.6 Ideally the displays should also weigh nothing and consume no power.
9.3.4.2 Candidate Technologies:
9.3.4.2.1 CRT
The cathode ray tube has been around since the 1930s with colour capability being introduced in the
1960s.
In the CRT, a cloud of electrons is generated by heating a tungsten filament. The electrons are accelerated
towards the screen by a high voltage and are shaped into a narrow beam by magnetic or electrostatic
lenses. This is called the electron gun.The screen is coated with a phosphor compound and when the beam
strikes it, a glowing spot results. The beam can be steered by the electromagnetic effect of the deflection
coils.
In a colour CRT, there are three separate electron guns, one for each of the three colours Red Green and
Blue. On the screen there is an array of red, green and blue phosphor dots and just behind the screen is a
mask which is aligned so that the electron beam from the red gun can reach only the red phosphor dots
etc.
Because of the need for the electron gun and deflection mechanism, CRTs tend to be deep which may
present problems in cockpit installations where space behind the instrument panel can be limited
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Table 4:
Table 4:
Note: the (??) indicates that these factors have been improved a great deal since the table was drawn up, primarily
due to developments for the laptop computer business.
One of the capabilities which the new, flexible displays have made possible is the electronic library.
It is now possible to store such things as the aircraft technical manuals, the operating manuals and emergency proce-
dures on a CD ROM or other storage device and to be able to display them on request to the pilot or maintenance
technician.
9.3.6.2 Solution
A solution to this is the head up display in which the pertinent data are projected on to a transparent screen
between the pilot and the windshield. Thus the pilot has all of the information needed to fly the approach
while looking out of the windshield.
Such a system presents a challenge to the optical designer since the image projected must be at infinity,
and because of the limited space available. Another requirement is for a relatively wide field of view so
that the pilot can move to see objects not directly ahead and still see the display. It also must be transparent
over most of the spectrum.
To accomplish these objectives devices called holographic combiners are used. These combine the high
reflectance required for a bright display with high transmissivity for a clear view outside the cockpit. The
holographic combiner is shaped to focus the image and is also (through the holographic process) a
diffraction grating which is tuned to the wavelength of the CRT phosphor light output. Thus it is highly
reflective over a narrow band of wavelengths and transparent over the rest of the spectrum.
To overcome the physical constraints, the optical path is arranged as shown below:
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9.3.7.1 Switches
These are typically of the push button type. To provide feedback they usually incorporate some sort of
tactile response such as variable resistance. Some systems provide an audible feedback capability. The
layout and spacing of the switches especially in keypads must be done carefully so as to reduce the
possibility of pressing the wrong switch or key or hitting two keys at a time
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