HIGH-TECH FLIGHT DECK

摘要

Navy officials are working with partners in industry and academia to make flight deck operations more efficient and prepare for the integration of unmanned systems on carriers.■ The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is working on a system that would provide the flight deck managers computer-aided situational awareness and quicker response to emergencies or changes in operational plans.■ Another system now being fielded by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) would computerize the aircraft handler's display of flight deck conditions.■ NAVAIR and Northrop Grumman are testing a system that guides unmanned aircraft around the carrier's flight pattern and to precision landings on the moving deck.After nearly 90 years of managing the chaotic and dangerous operations on an aircraft carrier's flight deck primarily by rudimentary manual means, the Navy is taking a number of steps to insert digital-age technology into the process.In addition to making the movement of scores of aircraft and numerous pieces of support equipment on the noisy and congested flight deck more efficient, the' high-tech electronics are preparing for the day in the not-so-distant future when some of the aircraft on that deck will be unmanned.