When the indigenously developed Tejas light combat aircraft’s naval version made its successful test-flight from a ski-jump a few days ago, feeding vital flight parameters to the pilot was a gadget designed and fabricated in Chandigarh.The Head-up Display (HUD) installed in the cockpit is a product of the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), which has developed various versions of the gadget for the Tejas’ air force variant as well as the jet trainer being developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
CSIO scientists said the naval variant of the HUD, an electro-optical instrument installed above the cockpit’s instrument panel, is different from the other versions as the environmental and technical specifications vary according to operating requirement.“The primary difference between the ship-borne and land-borne versions is the vertical field of view.
The pilot of a naval aircraft should also be able to see the deck of the ship, which is much shorter than conventional runways, from approach and take-off angles that are different while operating from airfields,” a scientist said.Also, the HUD for naval aircraft has to cater to high radiation levels, which are five times higher on a ship than on the ground.
Besides the cockpit configuration of the air force and naval aircraft being different, the onboard systems for naval aircraft have to be more rugged to cater to the harder landings on ships.The HUD superimposes vital flight parameters on the pilot’s vision of the outside world, giving him requisite information like air speed, altitude, weapon status, rate of turn and angle of attack at a glance and without having him to peer down inside the cockpit, thus enabling him to fly with his “head up”.
