Visual Simulation Requirements and Hardware

Requirements for any out-of-the-cockpit visual simulation system can easily lead to a set of system specifications which are clearly beyond the visual scene that can be produced by current technology. Therefore, the requirements of any proposed system must be assessed in light of the expected simulated aircraft and missions, experiments on pilot response, and available image generation and display hardware. A review is made of some of the recent experiments, and the results are related to aircraft and missions with particular emphasis on research and development simulators. Recent visual simulation hardware is considered in light of extending the range of applications of piloted aircraft simulators, and a method of design approach is proposed.