Chelton EFIS To Fly Aboard GlobalFlyer

Chelton Flight Systems' synthetic vision EFIS (Electronic Fight Instrument System) has been selected for the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. Steve Fossett expects to fly the aircraft around the world, non-stop, covering 23,000 miles in just under 80 hours in either April or October.

Designed and built by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, the GlobalFlyer had to meet very exacting criteria for lifting the enormous load of fuel needed for the journey. Component strength, reliability and weight are critical. Chelton Flight Systems, which has hundreds of EFIS units already flying in both experimental and certified aircraft, has the advantages of providing a tremendous volume of navigation information along with aircraft performance data and engine function data in a compact, lightweight package.

The EFIS will be the primary source of flight instrumentation and navigation for the round-the-world flight. The system will provide guidance from advanced FAA-certified Highway-In-The-Sky (HITS) predictive flight director and real-time moving map technology along the entire route of flight, along with seamless three-dimensional terrain modeling.

It also monitors engine performance parameters, fuel flow, waypoint ETAs, weather, and numerous other variables. The entire flight plan can be input prior to takeoff and can be amended enroute if weather or other conditions dictate. The system is coupled to a three axis autopilot and all Fossett will need to do is watch the aircraft fly through the HITS (a continuous sequence of green boxes denoting the appropriate course).

There are two display units in the panel, both of which serve the functions of over a dozen different instruments, saving tremendous weight and space. The two units provide redundancy.

FMI: www.GlobalFlyer.com, www.cheltonflightsystems.com