Up close and personal with the F-35 helmet

Some interesting pictures and video has come out of the F-35 Helmet Mounted Display System. The helmet displays data from the DAS, FLIR, and virtual HUD on the visor in front of the pilot, so that no matter where he looks, the information is always displayed in front of him where he can see it. The drawback is that it costs $400,000 a copy.

theaviationist.com...

Sorry not worthy of this convo..

Are they still pushing forward with the "transparent" airframe idea for the pilot to have unlimited vision?

a reply to: Blackfinger

Yes. That portion of it works rather well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Niche electronics will always be expensive. The combination of incredible capabilities and incredibly short production runs will always end up being incredibly expensive. Considering my employer just spent $~40,000 a pop for prehospital-spec cardiac monitor defibrillators, 10x the cost for something with the insane optical capabilities of the HMD doesn't sound all that ridiculous.

Honest question, what is the point of having the pilot in the airplane?

Would there be any benefit in plane design/specs to not worrying about a human on board?

Would it be terribly difficult to have the pilot elsewhere and control the plane remotely?

a reply to: TheBlackTiger

They currently can't fight air to air with any UAV. They're still several years away from even testing a system capable of it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Because of lack of adequate bandwidth to a remote location or some other limitation?

a reply to: TheBlackTiger

Unless you're close to the UAV there's a one second lag time between control input and reaction by the aircraft. In ACM one second is an eternity.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's what confuses me. I see this video that basically makes it look like the on-board computer is screaming "LOOK! Shoot at this!". Why not just take the next logical step and let that same system actually control the guns?

And not to be a total retard, but why can I play a game of WarThunder with people from Russia, China, India, and US and dogfight successfully, but these state of the art jets have bad lag?

a reply to: TheBlackTiger

Why not just take the next logical step and let that same system actually control the guns?

Because computers make mistakes. Not saying humans don't either, but I'd rather have the go ahead from a human being.

And not to be a total retard, but why can I play a game of WarThunder with people from Russia, China, India, and US and dogfight successfully, but these state of the art jets have bad lag?

I wonder the same thing. I think perhaps the amount of data that is being processed is far greater since the smallest fraction of time can mean a huge difference.

originally posted by: TheBlackTiger
a reply to: Zaphod58

And not to be a total retard, but why can I play a game of WarThunder with people from Russia, China, India, and US and dogfight successfully, but these state of the art jets have bad lag?

Because there is relatively little to no lag shooting information through fiber optic cables to a fixed position(house) when compared to a plane above the pacific receiving packets from a satelite when the plane is flying mach 1 and needs the most solid connection one can imagine.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Too bad this was a giant waste of money...plenty of pilots prefer are already aged airplanes over this money grab of a scheme..

a reply to: chrismarco

Except that the more people fly it and work on it the more they enjoy it and prefer it. It's also both necessary and far better than has been let on.

The overlay'd FLIR looks pretty sharp! That is going to make hiding from an F-35 pilot pretty tough.

Can the pilot self direct his ordinance now and not need spotters on the ground lighting up targets? That would be a nice advantage for precision. I'm sure spotters would be happy to not have to do that dangerous job anymore!

a reply to: noeltrotsky

They can spot for themselves, or use other aircraft/ground spotters. The EOTS system allows for optical or laser targeting for themselves if no one is there to lase for them.

This technology is not new! The MiG29 has had a helmet with look and shoot cues for 20+ years.

a reply to: buddah6

This is to look and shoot what the Apple II is to a modern computer. This is so far beyond that technology that it's not funny.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Agreed! Just saying it's been around awhile.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: chrismarco

Except that the more people fly it and work on it the more they enjoy it and prefer it. It's also both necessary and far better than has been let on.

Would enjoy some evidence to support that??

Google f-35 waste and you will see an overwhelmingly long list of information on what a giant waste of money this waste.

if you go on you tube you can watch a good expose on this lemon including the countries that are pissed for buying into this piece of junk...