Safety relevant navigation and certifiable databases for 3D synthetic vision systems

Abstract

In Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) a 3D flight guidance display depicts environmental data and mission critical information to pilots in order to increase situation awareness. With these systems Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) can be reduced and air traffic management for all phases of flight greatly enhanced. Such a system consists of three necessary components: 1) synthetic vision display (SVD) 2) high precision navigation 3) high accuracy databases. While the navigation system has to provide information about current position, attitudes, and sensor integrity, the databases provide information for terrain, obstacles, airports and navigation aids. This paper shows that these two essential prerequisites for a SVD are at a very developed stage and may be available as commercial equipment and procedures in the near future.