Stored Terrain Data Base Aided Pilotage for Helicopters

The military helicopter cockpit has become the focal point for development of sophisticated man-machine information interfaces. In order to satisfy the mission requirements imposed by the modern battlefield environment, the crew must rely on increased situational awareness, and, therefore, must process ever increasing amounts of data to attain the necessary comprehension. Furthermore, the trend in present light helicopter design is towards a single-man crew. Therefore emphasis in cockpit design is in retention of a reasonable workload by using sensor processing, sophisticated situational presentations, and various decision aids. This paper will discuss the information requirements, the display concepts, and the applications of stored topographic data to enhance pilotage and other situational awareness displays which supporting crew workload reduction.