Go future with the F-35 helmet (21 HQ Photos)

Go future with the F-35 helmet (21 HQ Photos)

 Go future with the F-35 helmet (22 HQ Photos)

The F-35’s Helmet Mounted Display Systems provide pilots with unprecedented situational awareness. All the information pilots need to complete their missions ? airspeed, heading, altitude, targeting information and warnings ? is projected on the helmet’s visor, rather than on a traditional Heads-up Display. This approach greatly reduces the pilot’s workload and increases responsiveness. Additionally, the F-35’s Distributed Aperture System (DAS) streams real-time imagery from six infrared cameras mounted around the aircraft to the helmet, allowing pilots to “look through” the airframe. The helmet also provides pilots night vision through the use of an integrated camera.

This is the new helmet-mounted display system for the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. The helmet is designed to provide pilots with binocular-wide field-of-view, give night vision abilities and scare enemy pilots at first sight. It was used for the first time last April, making the F-35 the first combat plane without a cockpit-mounted heads-up display in a very long time. The F-35 HDMS is loaded with all kinds of amazing goodies, like extreme off-axis targeting and head tracking “providing the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability.” The helmet was developed by Vision Systems International, a company that has other quite weird designs that are already operational, like the DASH and the JHMCS. Technical specs and another image of the F-35 HMDS after the jump.

F-35 HMDS features include:
? Virtual HUD
? Biocular 40° x 30° FOV
? Video Display
? AMLCD Image Source
? High Accuracy Opto-magnetic Tracker
? Adaptive Tracking ? no Mapping or Boresighting required
? Integrated Line-of-Signt (LOS) Cueing
? Integrated left & right upper Reticles (Puppers)
? Integrated Day/Night Debrief Camera
? Sensor Fusion
? Ejection Safe to 600 KEAS
? Custom helmet shell, liner and suspension system for lightest weight, optimal C.G. and maximum pilot comfort