Indigenous test rig for aircraft head-up display units developed

Vijay Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 31

An indigenous test rig for head-up display (HUD) units of aircraft has been developed by the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) here that will replace imported equipment in use at present, thereby leading to significant cost saving.

The test rig will be produced commercially by the public sector undertaking Bharat Electronics Limited that is already manufacturing HUDs for various fighter and training aircraft in Indian inventory.

All IAF and Navy fighters and advanced trainers as well as the C-17 transport aircraft are equipped with HUDs. A project to develop a HUD system for helicopters is also on the drawing boards.

The test rig is part of an end-to-end solution that will help in evaluating different functionalities of HUDs and similar systems at the intermediate and operator level at airbases as well as at depot level, maintenance level and at manufacturing agencies. According to CSIO scientists, the rig is an important import substitute which will help in reducing the overall time taken as well as the costs incurred to test new HUDs.

Besides being an exhaustive testing and evaluation platform for HUDs and identifying faults up to the component level, the test rig can also be used for testing and calibrating other equipment such as gun sights, bore sighting tools for laser ranger and marked target seekers.