Advancements in avionics technology continue to evolve, providing pilots with increasing levels of detail on the aircraft panel to make flying safer in low-visibility conditions.
A lightweight system from Astronics called Max-Viz 2300 enhanced-vision system has achieved certification, allowing for installation in more than 40 airplanes and helicopters for which it has an STC. The system is compatible with multiple MFDs from Avidyne, Garmin, Honeywell, BendixKing, Rockwell Collins and Universal Avionics. The Max-Viz 2300 measure about 3 by 7 inches and weighs less than 2.5 pounds.
The system displays infrared heat and LED lighting systems from airport lights to provide a clearer picture of the runway environment during night flight and other low visibility conditions.
“With the airport lighting environment converting over to low-heat LEDs, many thermal imagers can no longer detect the runway lights,” said Astronics Max-Viz sales manager Grant Sumpter. “The Max-Viz 2300, however, with our blended thermal and visible light image, does “see” the lights, and can provide detailed information about the terrain to pilots in all kinds of weather and flight conditions.”
In the future, the information from the Max-Viz 2300 will be able to combine with synthetic-vision images, producing what has been termed a Combined Vision System (CVS) similar to that of Dassault’s FalconEye CVS.
