Advances in Avionics (1970s)

545 you are welcome. Enter 545. No, no, no, what's your altitude? 0702 what's your altitude? The electronic systems in aircraft that help pilots communicate with the ground and provide navigation, guidance, and flight control are called avionics. By taking advantage of advances in electronics and microcomputers, the ease and safety of flying in the future may be greatly enhanced. One of the places involved in advanced avionics studies is NASA's Ames Research Center in California. Right now, the pilot, and in particular the sportsman pilot, has a lot of things to do. And he's the navigator, he's the pilot, he's the crew chief. Uh he has to load the aircraft properly and so forth. So, the thought is that the computer could do a lot of this work and let the pilot be free for making decisions and gathering information. For example, uh information on the weather. Uh he can concentrate on important decisions. Using a small computer and television screen that's sensitive to touch, like some of today's calculators, the pilot is assisted with a variety of tasks, including loading the plane. On the screen you see a simplified photograph, or I should say a top view schematic of the aircraft. A diagram in the lower left-hand corner, which represents the forward safe limit of the balance point, and the aft safe limit, as well as the maximum weight of the aircraft. So, that's in in a in a sense a safety diagram. Of course, I load it physically by putting the objects in the aircraft, but here I go through the procedure of touching the screen to represent those objects in the aircraft. These are people, fuel, baggage or cargo, and so forth. The computer requests the weight of the copilot, for example, and an X flashes where the copilot seat is. Enter copilot weight. 1 8 4 184 lb and I touch go. Then notice that you have voice feedback or echo back, as we call it. I don't have to look at the screen all the time to see if that number is entered correctly. I can hear it come back to me. So, in a sense, it's a check on accuracy. Okay, after entering that number, I touch go to actually insert it in the computer. Once the television monitor, computer, and voice synthesizer are installed in the aircraft, it will be possible to use them for navigation, guidance, and plotting the flight. Again, aerospace engineer Chuck Jackson. In the center panel of the instrument panel, we have a fixed map, but this is where the television monitor would be. So, for the moment, we'll work with this fixed map and give you an idea of how we might plan a flight. Let's say, for example, we want to fly from San Jose, California to Livermore, California by way of Hayward and Calaveras Reservoir. By the way, this replaces the uh the idea of spreading charts out over the kitchen table, drawing lines, measuring courses and distances, and all the details that normally go with uh intelligently planning a flight. Here you can do it right in the airplane, more accurately and more simply by simply pointing to what you want. Okay, the pen is positioned at San Jose and it asked what altitude I want there. Well, if I'm going to take off, I'll say 0 ft. 0 and go. Go. Now, the pen moves to Hayward. Let's say we want to make a low pass at 1,000 ft. With an advanced avionic system, the computer tunes the navigation radios and points out the plane's location on the map. So, you're never lost, a tremendous asset to safety. 1,600 or 3,600 ft. 3 6 100 and go. Go.