Greg Lemons, Lockheed Martin’s missions systems expert for the F-35, compared the glow to a TV that’s on with nothing on the screen in a dark room. It’s not bright, but there’s still a noticeable glow, and it was plenty to impair the pilots’ ability to operate in dark conditions, he said.
The solution the companies found centered on a technology change from AM-LCD to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, which shut off much more quickly and completely, eliminating the offending green glow.
Another issue involved latency in the tracker. Eliminating as much latency as possible is always a concern for something that is going to be ever-present in pilots’ vision so they can receive visual data and react. Air-to-surface gun strafing performance, in particular, was not meeting requirements thanks to latency with the helmet tracker, according to LemonsRockwell Collins is also considering other applications. The Joint Program Office isn’t the only group interested in an advanced piece of helmet technology.
“We're looking at special mission aircraft,” Ray said. “The JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) guys are very interested—and not just airborne applications but also maritime and ground applications. We actually received some information, believe it or not, from the Department of Interior where they're looking at an application of using something like this to fight fires on the west coast.”
The trick there is just to make sure to find the balance between the important capabilities — the wide field of view, the situational awareness, the comfort — and the price. The DOD can pay $400,000 for what Ray calls “the Ferrari,” but firefighters can’t.
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