Collins Aerospace Receives Milestone Certification for Combined Vision Systems

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Collins Aerospace has achieved a technical standard order (TSO) for its combined vision system (CVS) for business aviation aircraft. The CVS provides clarity to pilots in all types of weather to confidently and securely navigate aircraft through low visibility situations.

A long-time industry leader in head-up display (HUD) technology, Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) and Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS), Collins’ advanced CVS algorithms blend the full EVS image and SVS into a single conformal view, creating the best possible image on the HUD and primary flight display (PFD) that pilots use to safely and efficiently navigate through challenging environments.

“TSO certification is an important step in our journey to provide dynamic CVS technology to our customers who rely on our vision systems to guide them through low visibility situations in every stage of flight,” said Craig Brown, general manager of Vision Systems for Collins Aerospace. “Whether it’s poor weather, smoke, dust, demanding terrain or busy airports, CVS clearly and automatically displays the critical visual information pilots need to safely operate their aircraft.”

CVS brings together Collins’ proven HUD, PFD, SVS and EVS technologies, to present the best view to pilots. Advanced algorithms detect and extract real-time features from the complete EVS image – such as from Collins’ EVS-3600 multi-spectral EVS sensor – and integrate them with Collins’ feature-rich SVS which accurately presents terrain, obstacles, airports and runways, independent of the visibility conditions. These CVS images are displayed conformally on the HUD and in color on the PFD, providing clarity through low-visibility conditions like smoke, fog and darkness.

Collins’ true CVS is a single enhanced view, enabling pilot visibility far beyond what the eye can see. This greatly improves situation awareness, reduces workload by eliminating the need for manual switching between vision systems and enables maximum operational credit by allowing aircraft to continue all the way to the runway surface in low visibility scenarios rather than necessitating a go-around. CVS is ready to support these future operations, such as EFVS takeoff and EFVS approaches in lower visibilities.

Collins’ Vision Systems solutions are currently installed and flying on both commercial and military platforms, including the C-130 Hercules and the Boeing 737 family of aircraft, with future certification installments planned for additional military rotorcraft.