Guess we folks from another career field have lost the battle about an AoA indication ( a simple one). Same for a HUD.
Being an aviation dinosaur, I was amazed at the first HUD I saw back in 1971. Easy to use, and really helped to see what the plane was actually doing with respect to the Earth, although we still had the "steam gauges" like attitude indicator, turn needle, altimiter, airspeed indicator, etc. Those were the "primary flight instruments", as the really old dinosaurs insisted on flying with them. In practice, 99% of the pilots used the HUD for almost everything, despite its obvious use with weapon delivery. Sure, we used the steam gauges to correlate with the inertial data on the HUD - the flight path marker ( FPV for the 'bus, I guess). But the HUD had the altitude, speed and vertical velocity ( inertial or baro) and heading displayed. The biggie was the pitch line display. No kidding lines that showed actual angle WRT to the Earth, and not a simple attitude. Put the FPM on the horizon line and you were level. Put it at 2 1/2 degrees down and you had a great approach angle. Put it 1000 feet down the runway and that''s where you were gonna hit unless you flared.
Our AoA was not a separate indicator most of the time. The Navy jets had "indexer" lights beside the gunsight or HUD to provide optimum approach AoA for any gross weight.
Yet I see "professional" pilots here that kiss off a HUD and a simple AoA indication. At the same time, they seem to put up with the main displays that seem very cluttered. Then the chirps and bongs and cavalry charge sounds. Sheesh.
I submit a
PR link for a "civilian" HUD. I also think you can look at my leading edge flap failure approach video to see the value of the FPM. And be advised I used power to bring the aircraft vector back up after screwing up, and barely made it to the RWY. AoA bracket was low, and I kept it that way because I still had one pound of roll authority unless I let the AoA increase. Hence I used power to achieve rate of descent and flight path ( rate of climb is proportional to power available minus power required, huh?).
I will guarantee that if the AF447 crew had an inertial-based HUD that the PF would not have continued to pull up to an obscene pitch attitude and allow the speed to decay. The thing would have worked as normal without ANY AIR DATA!!!
Look at a cost-effective HUD that I found for this rant:
HGS-3500 Head-up Guidance System
rant ends...