Demonstration of an Aircraft Navigator's Moving Map Display

摘要

In the P3-C maritime patrol aircraft, the navigator is responsible for manycommunications related tasks while airborne, and as a result cannot afford to spend excessive time on his navigational duties. The concept of a low-cost Moving Map Display (MMD) as a navigator's aid has been proposed in order to minimise the time involved in assessing the aircraft's situation and identifying any deviations from the required course. The display should convey the aircraft's position, track and course (by means of pre-determined waypoints) superimposed on a map. It is required to be easily readable and involve minimal operator effort. A demonstrator of such a navigator's display has been developed and is incorporated into Flight Management Group's Programmable Cockpit. Aircraft position track and waypoint information are received via an RS232 serial line. Operator control the display is by a touch sensitive screen. Two map representations have been included in the demonstrator: a simple coast-only map (labelled Digital) onto which other features may be added in the future; and a more conventional digitized paper map. Since this display is intended for the navigator's station, north-up orientation of the map is sufficient. This simplifies the hardware requirements considerably as, unlike pilot-oriented heading-up displays, no image rotation is involved.