First Civilian Certification of Helmet-Mounted Flight-Display

Universal Avionics—in partnership with Norway’s Heli-One and the German Federal Police— has successfully completed test flights of its SkyVis Helmet Mounted Display.

The partnership seeks to develop a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the SkyVis system’s integration with the H215 platform. If successful, the collaboration will give rise to the first civilian certification of a helmet-mounted flight-display.?

The SkyVis suite comprises a set of helmet-mounted, monocle-type displays for the visualization of primary flight information. The system can be used independently in daylight, or paired with night-vision goggles for low-light operations.

Designed to reduce pilot workload in demanding flight environments, SkyVis grants aviators heads-up access to critical flight information, thereby increasing situational awareness by ensuring pilot focus remains contemporaneously inside and outside the cockpit.

Helmet mounted displays project information directly to a pilot's eyes. Such systems improve perception of the flight environment and—in military applications—aim weapon systems in the direction of the pilot’s gaze. 

While conceptually simple, implementation of aircraft helmet mounted displays encompasses numerous variables. Designs must sense the position of the pilot’s head and its orientation relative the aircraft with a high degree of precision—even in turbulence, under high G-loading, and during rapid head movement.

Universal and its partners expect full certification of the H215 SkyVis system in 2022.

FMI: https://www.uasc.com