Roughly $1.7 trillion {dollars} has been invested within the fifth technology multi-role F-35 program. Technologically, it is probably the most superior fighter airplane on the planet, boasting stealth know-how to keep away from detection together with radar jamming capabilities and the flexibility to achieve speeds over Mach 1.6 (1,200 mph).
It may well carry over 18,000 lbs of internally hidden weapons payload. It has almost each sensor sort you possibly can consider: Lively Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA) radar, Distributed Aperture System (DAS), Electro Optical Focusing on System (EOTS) and a Helmet Mounted Show System (HMDS).
One of many three F-35 variants even has the flexibility to take off and land vertically (VTOL) – or just hover within the air – with a push of a button.
To make all of this work cohesively, the usual “prime gun” F-16 type helmet we’re all conversant in needed to be up to date. Gone is the standard inexperienced Heads-Up Show (HUD) that you just keep in mind seeing on the sprint of each cockpit in each 90’s fighter airplane film. For pinpoint VTOL operations and complete situational consciousness in fight, the F-35 required a helmet that may make your complete airplane disappear, for unobstructed imaginative and prescient in any route.
It took a decade of improvement, however Collins Aerospace made it occur with the Genesis III, or “Gen 3” HMDS – on the mere worth of $400,000 a pop.
That is sufficient to purchase a modest apartment in Miami Seashore, Florida or about as a lot as sending each your children to get a 4-year diploma from Harvard.
However you do get your cash’s value; the Gen 3 HMDS serves because the pilot’s major show in addition to the weapons management system. The F-35 Lightning II has 6 cameras mounted to the outside of the plane pointed in each route, and the visor on the Gen 3 HMDS exhibits a stitched-together composite of all these digital camera views, permitting the pilot a full 360-degree, fully unobstructed view, just by turning their head. If you happen to look down the place your flight stick is, you will see proper via your self and the airplane, all the best way to the bottom.
On prime of this, the HMDS offers a steady show of flight data and sensor information, translating every thing right into a helpful Augmented Actuality (AR) overlay whereas additionally offering enter again to the F-35 – which is principally a flying supercomputer.
Pilots can mark and monitor “friendlies” or enemy air and floor items by merely taking a look at them with the Genesis 3 HMDS focusing on system.
Night time time? No drawback. The Gen 3 HMDS has built-in night-vision with a 30-by-40-degree field-of-view and 100% overlap, eliminating the necessity to have separate night-vision goggles. Infrared cameras on the fuselage enable the pilot to see even in full darkness.
The helmet is able to a pilot ejection at 550 KEAS. That is 633 miles per hour (1,018 kph) for us mere mortals.
To make all of this work, each Gen 3 HMDS foam helmet liner is custom-designed and laser lower for the person. Reservists within the 419th Operations Help Squadron measure and 3D-scan each pilot’s noggin to create an ideal and exact match of the liner to enter the carbon fiber outer shell.
The pilot’s pupillary distance is exactly measured to make sure solely a single picture is seen on the visor. Additionally measured is the eye-to-visor distance to maintain every thing in good focus.
The fitment course of is so extremely detailed, that even getting a brand new coiffure or consuming too many cupcakes would imply your helmet would now not match correctly. Each 120 days, the helmet undergoes a fit-check to make sure it is functioning correctly and as much as requirements.
That is numerous know-how stuffed into a few 5 lbs (2.3 kg) package deal. For comparability, a high-end motorbike helmet normally weighs round 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg). Nonetheless, it is all fully essential to make pilot and machine operate as one.
Does it include a {custom} squeegee if the pilot has to sneeze?
Here is a superb overview from Sam Eckholm of the F-35A Lightning II with data on the pilot’s loadout, together with the Gen 3 HMDS helmet. Skip to 9:09 if you wish to simply see the helmet.
The World’s Most Superior Fighter Jet | F-35 Lightning
Supply: Collins Aerospace