Boeing has picked Rockwell Collins to provide the head-mounted display subsystems (HMDs) for the Remote Aerial Refueling Operator II (RARO II) for the Global Aerial Tanker/Transport Aircraft (GTTA) program.

The work will be performed by Kaiser Electro-Optics, Inc. (KEO), which itself is a Rockwell Collins company. The customized HMDs will be based on the KEO ProView(tm) HMD product line that is currently in use throughout the world in industrial, medical, virtual reality, training and military applications.

KEO will be responsible for the development, production and integration of the new HMDs into the KC-767A tankers, which have already been chosen by the Italian Air Force and the Japan Air Self Defense Force for their tanker missions.

"This is a ground breaking program," said KEO Director Jerry Carollo. "For the first time, HMDs will be used to assist refueling operators with the successful completion of their missions. This paves the way for high performance, full color, stereo HMDs of this type to augment or replace displays used by mission operators for a variety of applications."

FMI: www.keo.com; www.rockwellcollins.com