F-35 Helmet First Look

[niceasdrhuxtable]

F-35 Joint Striker Fighter helmet renders the plane nearly invisible

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EquipmentAndLogistics/NewCombatHelmetIsAVisionOfTheFuture.htm

New combat helmet is a vision of the future
9 Nov 07

The developmental pilot helmet for the highly advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is currently being evaluated by defence scientists at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
JSF Test Helmet. Opens in a new window.

In 2001 the Government selected the Joint Strike Fighter to meet the requirement for a stealthy multi-role fighter to operate from the future aircraft carriers, replacing the Harriers.

Unlike modern fast jet aircraft the Joint Strike Fighter, which is planned to replace the famous Harrier, does not have a ‘traditional’ head-up display – instead the computerised symbology is displayed directly onto the pilot’s visors.

This Helmet Mounted Display System provides the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting the aircraft. It will even superimpose infra-red imagery onto the visor which allows the pilot to ‘look through’ the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Rob Harrison, who was one of the pilots who took part in the subjective assessment tests, flying in a Hawk aircraft at Boscombe Down said:

"It cannot be stressed how important this sort of evaluation is to the Joint Strike Fighter Programme. The helmet is a critical piece of equipment and simply has to work."

Squadron Leader Rob Harrison

The helmet programme is being evaluated by the MOD’s DE&S Joint Combat Aircraft Integrated Project Team along with the RAF’s Centre for Aviation Medicine. The developmental head gear is manufactured by Vision Systems International and Helmet Integrated Systems Limited.

The highly advanced Joint Strike Fighter, which is being built by Lockheed Martin, is planned to replace the RAF and RN’s Harriers.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the next phase of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme was signed on 12 December 2006 by then Minister of State for Defence Procurement, Lord Drayson, following a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Gordon England, in Washington DC.

*Edit to remove double quote*

 

[kr1kit]

looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, very neat none the less. Can't wait to see how these things fair in action though

 

[niceasdrhuxtable]

It seems to be a trend in headware these days. Our new HGU/56 isn't quite as far into science-fiction but it has a definite "star wars" feel to it; especially with the wind guard attached.

 

[Loachman]

The flying suit, in comparison, looks too disappointingly normal.

They need something in black PVC, with lots of ridges and pseudo-muscles and such.

 

[Kyu]

It seems to be a trend in headware these days. Our new HGU/56 isn't quite as far into science-fiction but it has a definite "star wars" feel to it; especially with the wind guard attached.

Yeah, it looks like those TIE fighter pilots helmets. Let's hope the F-35 won't be an easy target like the TIE fighters.

 

[aesop081]

Yeah, it looks like those TIE fighter pilots helmets. Let's hope the F-35 won't be an easy target like the TIE fighters.

Positively brilliant....... :

 

[Bograt]

hmmm... I'm sure it has been looked at, but I can't help but wonder how the drivers are going to deal with the fatigue of wearing that kit. Neck strain is a bugger.

 

[Sheerin]

How heavy is that sucker?

 

[niceasdrhuxtable]

How heavy is that sucker?

I've been poking around but I can't find an official value, just some marketing mumbo-jumbo about "latest lightweight materials".

Some more views

 

[niceasdrhuxtable]

Spoke too soon. Found this Blogpost at Aviation Week:

F-35 VSI non-HUD HMD

http://aviationweek.typepad.com/ares/2007/04/f35_nonhud_hmd.html

F-35 VSI non-HUD HMD

27_15489

Lockheed Martin test pilot Jon Beesley is experimenting with the company's experimental teleportation system when a house fly blunders into the machinery...

Actually, this is not another remake of the 1958 Vincent Price sci-horror demi-classic, but the flight-test configuration of the helmet-mounted display (HMD) for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

In this movie, the only screams have come from engineers at Vision Systems International (VSI), the Rockwell Collins/Elbit joint venture which took on the job of developing the helmet in August 2003. The F-35 helmet requirement posed challenges that have defeated the best in the business in the past.

First, the jet has no fixed head-up display (HUD), so the HMD's pointing accuracy has to be good enough for high-precision tasks like gun-firing. The specification is 1.8 milliradians, three times better than most HMDs.

VSI has been loyal to magnetic trackers, which are accurate and responsive but require remapping of the cockpit's magnetic field after maintenance; the JSF customer did not accept that, so an upgraded magnetic tracking system provides on-the-fly (so to speak) correction and boresighting with the help of a dash-mounted camera.

And the helmet had to have a wide field of view, with binocular imagery (not just symbols) to project an all-round infra-red picture, produced by the F-35's array of staring IR cameras, at night. Then there's the impact protection and the fact that the pilot might want to retain his head during ejection. By the way, did we tell you that you have to fit 95 per cent of the population and they all have different shaped heads? And can you do all that inside a four-pound weight budget?

The solution is based on a feather-light carbon-fibre shell. Instead of using separate prism-like combiners to display the image in front of the pilot's eyes, VSI has bitten the bullet and made the move to an integral visor/combiner - the visible vertical edge in the visor shape blends structural and optical requirements. Left and right images are generated by 1280 x 1024-pixel commercial LCDs, backlit by high-intensity sources. (The left-hand projector produces the right-side image and vice versa.)

Full qualification of the HMD has run behind the flight-test program, but the system flew on the F-35's tenth test flight last week.

--Bill Sweetman

 

[cameron]

Well i'll be honest it's ugly as f@#$, but as long as it works and it helps our boys shoot down Iranians, Ruskies or whoever then i'm all for it.