GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
UK Royal Air Force first to benefit from high-performance Harmony 2 image generation
The transition of flight-simulator visual systems to PC-based image generators is accelerating with the introduction of Evans & Sutherland's (E&S) Harmony 2 high-performance system for military training. The first Harmony 2 has been delivered to Thales Training & Simulation (TTS) for the UK Royal Air Force's BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 synthetic training aids programme.
Harmony 2 will replace E&S's troubled Harmony image generator in production, and incorporate lessons learned from the hardware and software problems encountered during development of the all-new high-end system. The Harmony problems have delayed several key military simulator programmes in the UK and elsewhere.
"We have incorporated the lessons learned and increased the capability," says Dave Figgins, vice-president product marketing. PC technology has allowed E&S to increase performance while reducing size. "Harmony 1's seven custom chips are collapsed to three in Harmony 2," he says. Harmony 1's 24 geometry processors are replaced with an off-the-shelf two-processor PC chip, coupled to a custom graphics accelerator.
Texture memory is up from 64Mb to 2Gb, enabling Harmony 2 to handle large high-resolution visual databases derived from satellite and other imagery. Simulation of weather effects, sea state, low-altitude cues, lighting effects, terrain shadows and sensor images is also better than Harmony 1, says E&S.
Harmony 2 is the latest in a series of PC-based image generators introduced by Salt Lake City, Utah-based E&S as it moves away from costly custom-designed systems. Shipments of its low-end SimFusion 5000 began in September, and deliveries of its EP-1000CT visual system for commercial flight simulators will begin early next year.
Designed to meet Level D training standards, the EP-1000CT has been ordered by Lufthansa Flight to equip several simulators, and by KLM and Singapore Airlines for installation on Boeing 777 simulators being built by TTS. E&S is also offering the EP-100CT for military transport-aircraft simulators.
Rival CAE, meanwhile, has won European JAA Level D certification for its Tropos PC-based visual system installed on a Boeing 737 simulator located at the Canadian company's Amsterdam training centre. Tropos customers include CAE's Dallas and Rome training centres, GE Commercial Aviation Training, EVA Airways and WestJet.
Indra has ordered E&S ESIG-3800 image generators for two Boeing 737 simulators being built by the Spanish company for China's Hainan Airlines.Source: Flight International
