ATR Head Mounted Display
 

Anybody flown with this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f3fFm5OydM

Looks like a future development video, therefore i doubt that it is in normal line use yet. But interesting, the HMD looks kinda similar to the microsoft hololens and is actually in a way an augmented reality display. Something that we probably will see in a lot of aircraft in the future. Always wondered why commercial aviation OEMs were not working on something like that, GA versions of something similar have been in the works for the last 5 or 8 years by now, albeit with little results so far.

Should be much cheaper than a HUD, offers greater flexibility and much more options, not to mention a pretty much unlimited field of view and more and interesting information (airspace structure anyone? Can be very interesting at some airports).

The first thing I thought about was: how much does it weigh? I bought my own headset to replace the DC headsets used by my outfit partly because of their weight - wearing them up to 7 hrs a night gave neck pains and headaches. Adding more weight on the flight crews' head is a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. This is second-rate compared to a HUD.

Cheers :cool:

You would only need to don it for approach and landing.......

But when would you use it? For doing 'visual' approaches in IMC at a runway with no approach aids?

Might be useful for air taxis flying to small basic airfields?

However, the way some crews treat the aircraft headsets suggests that this system would not last very long before it got broken.

While this concept has some advantages, like (at least the possibility of) a bigger field of vision compared to conventional HUDs, keeping the "headworn hardware" operative in an airline environment with 8+ landings a day and multiple crew changes is a challenge.

Given the economic climate I'd imagine this not to become a huge seller despite the advantages, as many operators don't buy anything that's not required by regulation unless there is a solid economical advantage (e.g. improved minima in places where lots of diversions might result without).

At least for EVS we'll be able to judge fleet permeation by looking for those telltale bulges on ATR noses.:8