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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0662.PDF
678 FLIGHT, 16 May 1958 Left, Douglas A4D interim pro- duction cockpit with ANIP. Below, British Sperry helicopter artificial horizon. FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS Left, Pathway on a TV tube. Above, Kollsman counter alti- meter. Below, American Sperry H-10 artificial horizon. PERHAPS the most revolutionary cockpit equipment so fardeveloped is the Army-Navy Instrumentation Program forwhich Douglas El Segundo and Bell Helicopter Corporation respectively hold fixed- and rotating-wing co-ordination contracts.Flight tests of an interim system in a Lockheed T2V SeaStar began last August and information on the whole project wasreleased to the airlines in October. ANIP is based on a television projection system using a flat,transparent TV tube interposed between pilot and windscreen on which a grid lattice in perspective is projected to represent atheoretically flat earth below the aircraft. The grid image is con- stantly aligned and moved according to the signals derived fromattitude and directional gyros, A.S.I, and altimeter so that the pilot has before him a realistic picture of his relationship to theearth both in attitude and movement. Recently added is a device called Pathway, which superimposeson a flat-earth pattern a ribbon-like track along which the aircraft can be flown. Pathway can be set either to direct a desiredmanoeuvre or to interpret navigation signals from radio or other aids. Bell hope to fly a helicopter with ANIP next year. The TV picture is termed a contact analogue, since it gives apicture analogous with contact (visual) flight. The device which generates the picture is called a contact analogue generator andis made by Allen B. Dumont Laboratories. Litton Industries are preparing a digital computer, with memory store, analogue-to- digital converters and redundant circuits (for later additions),which will be able to compute true airspeed, temperature and other factors and provide full information in the contact analogue.A map display will also be projected by TV on a nearly horizontal panel; and information on range and endurance as well as instruc-tions for cruise control will be included. Many versions of the Douglas-designed ANIP system havebeen illustrated; and the latest example, shown here, has a normal television screen in the panel instead of a flat tube in the wind-screen. Nevertheless, Douglas mention a development in which the TV tube would be solid, not hollow, and would actually formthe whole windscreen transparency. The extent of the contact analogue picture would be greatly increased in this way. The panel being tested in the SeaStar is little more than acontact analogue, with quantitative information supplied on dials below the screen. The later version illustrated is of the interimproduction cockpit for the A4D Skyhawk. Here tape instruments for height, speed and engine control have been added, togetherwith a refined version of the Douglas cockpit control-layout. The control column is a short handle on the right console, and thethrottle is a hand-shaped grip to port fitted with various buttons and a trigger. See-saw switches control various aircraft functions,and digital indicaters rather than dials show radio channels, time and E.T.A. Clearly marked and integrally lit keys are depressedto select navigation and weapon control services. The circular,
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