PDAS flies on V-280 Valor
Lockheed Martin's Pilotage Distributed Aperture Sensor (PDAS) system has flown aboard Bell Helicopter's V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft in Fort Worth, Texas, the company announced on 15 April.
In a series of flight tests in March, PDAS captured complete spherical infrared imagery while operating in a high-speed flight environment and generated real-time imagery.
PDAS is a multi-functional sensor system that generates high-resolution, 360° all-weather pilotage imagery to aircrew. Designed for current and future vertical lift aircraft, it consists of six infrared sensors distributed around the aircraft linked to aircrew helmets and cockpit displays via an open-architecture processor.
The PDAS system currently generates imagery for two users. It will ultimately support up to six users, which could include pilots in other aircraft and mission commanders on the ground.
Planned capability upgrades will demonstrate additional integrated survivability suite capabilities including multi-modal sensor fusion (MMSF). MMSF combines data from multiple types of sensors to restore aircrew situational awareness in degraded visual environments and enables navigation in GPS-denied zones.
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