Not to be confused with "huddled masses" but more accurately a Heads Up Display (HUD) that might find it's way down into normal General Aviation (GA) aircraft? Talk about your disruptive technology! This has the potential to make Glass Panels seem so 2000....
The sample image shown at right is a simulation of what COULD be seen from the cockpit of your favorite bug-smasher in the near future. What would it display on you ask? A fixed screen between you and the windscreen like on 90's era fighter planes? No way! How about a head-mounted eyepiece that you look through like you see in all the cool helicopter movies? Nope. How about a drop down glass panel like you see on some commercial airliners? Not even close.
William J. Steele, a programmer at Microsoft, has been working on low cost, high information displays for GA aircraft for the last 5 years and he has patents on what he calls his VirtualHUD. The HUD doesn't really exist in a physical world, it is actually projected, via lasers, onto the disc of, get this, the spinning propeller out there in front of you!
He envisions this a "hand-held device" that can display not only standard instrumentation required for VFR and IFR flight including engine instrumentation and a Highway In The Sky set of boxes (shown above) for your flight plan! And since it is not a panel mounted device, no need for FAA approval! He claims that there should also be a little mini EFIS built into the back side of the device in case your prop stops running. LOL.
I could go on and on about how absolutely cool this is but you really ought to go check this out your self on his website: http://www.virtualhud.com/. Oh, and in case you are wondering, he is licensing his technology so if you are run an avionics company or are a manufacturer, run this guy at Oshkosh and find out more about this exciting technology!
Twin pilots need not apply!
Tags: hud