Flight study of on-board enhanced vision system for all-weather aircraft landing

On-board enhanced vision system for all-weather aircraft navigation and landing which is currently under development in State research institute of aviation systems is described. The system is based on combination of three imagers sensitive in visible, short wave infrared (SWIR) and long wave infrared (LWIR) spectral ranges and demonstrating to the pilot only the most informative images from the time-aligned multi-sensor data. The results of flight tests at glissade trajectories of the light aircraft AC-5 MP obtained at various weather conditions are presented. It is shown that each spectral range may be informative under certain conditions of observation. In adverse and poor-visibility conditions, such as fog, high humidity and low clouds, SWIR range has the biggest information content.