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home > February 2008 issue > article
Fighter helmet provides 'see-through' display
By Brian Robinson
Special to Defense Systems
The traditional heads-up display used on fighter aircraft
gives the pilot navigation and weapons cues through a computerized
display projected onto the aircraft’s windscreen, but the display for
the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter goes further.
Using a helmet-mounted display that projects computer-created
symbols directly on the helmet’s visor, F-35 pilots will also be able
to see a 360-degree infrared image of the ground beneath them during
night flights.
The headgear is manufactured by Vision Systems International, a
joint venture between Elbit Systems, Rockwell-Collins, and Helmet
Integrated Systems.
Other features on the new helmet include a binocular wide fieldof-
view. The helmet also employs advanced hardware and software
that detects the motion of the pilot’s head and adjusts what is projected
on the visor with near zero latency. That ensures that images
are accurately displayed on the helmet visor wherever the pilots
move their heads.
The new helmet-mounted display is necessary because the F-35
will not have a traditional heads-up display, the first tactical fighter
jet in more than 30 years to fly without one.
A prototype of the new helmet first flew on the F-35 in 2007 after
being in development for five years.
The F-35 is the product of a multinational program with development
and funding provided by the United States, its principal partner,
the United Kingdom, along with Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey,
Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway.
Three models of the F-35 will be produced: one version for conventional
takeoff situations from airfields, another as a short-takeoff,
vertical-landing replacement for the aging Harrier, and the third for
carrier-based operations.
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