No, the headgear in the photo above wasn't some unused prototype created for
The Terminator; rather, it's a snazzy new helmet designed to give fighter pilots a better look at their surroundings. Within the tinted faceplate are two projectors which sync up with plane-mounted cameras and display images from the outside for the pilot to view. Essentially, this enables the operator to view high-resolution images (yes, even at night) of areas previously imperceptible without a warplane constructed entirely of plexiglass, and onboard sensors make sure that the imagery reflects exactly where the pilot is looking at any given moment. Furthermore, computerized systems can even feed in "essential flight and combat data on to the display," as well as target symbols of friendlies / enemies. The new visual system is apparently just one amenity on the oh-so-sophisticated Joint Strike Fighter, which the British are planning to pay £66 million ($139 million) apiece for after it hits the production line.
[Via
Switched]
posted Nov 10th 2007 12:13PM
Creepy!
Does it run Bit-torrent?
Nevermind me I've been drinking
Chief! Chief! Wake up!... Cortana, can you hear me in there?!?
creepy
i agree
imagin playing manhunt in that!
Can't wait to see this in the next season of Dr Who...
he has been assimilated.
SWAT KATS !!
More like wonder woman. Invisible jet GO!
what if the system shows the bluescreen...just like the sky
it wont do that because its probably linux based lol..
Stolen from the Cardasians!
In other news, I watch too much DS9
More like stolen from the YF-23 from Macross Plus.
"It's downloading music from the internet"
"Which music?"
"All of it."
--Stealth (in case you were smart enough to never see the movie)
That makes me pretty dumb then. Seriously what a cringeworthy film - every OTT technical cliche in the book, with a vomit inducing amout of jingoism. Nice cgi though...
that so incredibly badass
Agreed, my first thoughts as well.
Don't look into his eyes!
I call Shenanigans.
Mooooo.
I understand having it for the HUD and for looking at blindspots in the pilots' POV, but surely for flying and looking straight out the front of the plane its better just to use those things called eyes that we usually use?
Or have I got it wrong and it only projects the feed from the cameras when you look somewhere you can't see with your eyes?
Why would it be better to just use our eyes? Our eyes can't see an airplane from very far away even in the daytime and they don't see infrared.
Your first assumption is wrong, the second one is correct: the projections only show what you normally could not see when you turn in that direction, they also display, as I understand it, weapon information and night vision capabilities.
When life and death is decided in 1/100th of a second, you don't want to have *any* blindspots. Whether or not this system is better then the sensors that are already in place is yet to be seen.
And I hate to break it to the anything british-loving engadget boys, but the Joint Strike Fighter program was initiated by the US, and the UK is just one of many partners in the project.
yes, and this piece of kit was created by the British... whats your point??
Anyway, yes the JSF program was started by the yanks, but the Brits are seen as an equal partner as they're putting so much money into it. they're not just paying for the licence to build the aircraft, they're actually helping build it!
why bother sticking the pilot in the plane, give him the helmet and controls at a base. could perform more maneuvers
Richard always goes balistic anytime someone makes fun of the Torries.
Oh and Rich, the UK is only working on the JumpJet version (F-35B) as a replacement for the Harrier, which your military is still hung up on thanks to the all that business in the Falklands. And 10% of the development cost does not make you "equal" anything, especially when the head of project development refuses to release the OS source code for the jet to your government because your country has a nasty habit of letting classified data slip out to third parties. *cough* MiG-15 *cough* *cough*
That little bit of kit should be awesome next Halloween though... good luck with that.
Oh here we go again.... well am niether american nor brittish but I'd have to stick with Richard Walker on this one... Whos going balistic Cash? I'd say it's u more than Richard. Plus I can see why the brits would want this in not only their own JSF:s but yours as well! Now the american pilots will get a big brittish flag flashing over every brittish aka friendly helicopter they plan to fire at (no idee why I picked a heli as an example) Hey! now I know!! U shot one down in Iraq!! LOL
This piece is most certainly NOT British in design or development. Not trying to sound cool on the Internet, but I know very much firsthand that this is not true.
If only he was wearing a black leather suit it would look evil. Although the glowing green eyes are pretty evil looking.
I'm saving for buying one...
damn.. while going to bed checked engadget for one last time for the day and freaked out...
now have to spend few more mins watching.. err well never mind
this proves that alot of people play halo.
Do they really need the green eyes? I mean, really?
Anyways, as far as tech goes, this is pretty sick. The ability to see through the jet should prove useful for locating targets below and beside you. Plus, could we port that tech later on for us poor old consumers? Like having eyes on the back of your head, or Blind Spot Sunglasses with these displays?
The green eyes are reflections from within the helmet. The helmet projects images either onto the visor or onto the pilot's face, and the light seeps through, reflecting/illuminating the pilot's eyes. I don't think the effect of making it look even scarier than it already does was intentional. Of course, regular modern pilot helmets frighten me enough already, so maybe that's just me.
I highly doubt the pilot's eyes are that round, dude.
This is what happens when Sam Fischer starts playing too much Ace Combat..
Gizmodo posted this last night and Engadget won the award?
Cry somewhere else. In other, breaking news ... one post, one lousy layout and one approach to criticism: banning and censorship ... does not make a winning blog.
your point? some stories engadget posts first, some posts giz posts first...whoop dee doo
How DARE you use my name for a post such as this?! For Shame. Go Go Engadget!
I like this. Remind anyone of Blue Gender???
Does this explain that whole Roswell thing?
thats the helmet from MACROSS PLUS!!!!!
I want one.
I would think a Predator Reference would have been more appropriate...
But can it play Doom?
Better than that, it plays doom ALL THE TIME
Id like to point out that they both fucking suck... They are biased itards, occasionally you find a good story somewhere though... Fuck Engadget and fuck Gizmodo, Fuck crescentdavid and fuck David W.
David W.>> Im not gonna take shit from a elitist asshole
"if you aren't French then I have nothing against you..." (David W.)
People who sign up in order to read and post on sites they say "suck" amuse me. Tu es un con.
I doubt he could see the broad side of a barn with those 2 bright ass green lights in his eyes blinding him!
it may seem cool, but can it run doom
Looks like Catwoman's boyfriend.
Fallout live!
So you're telling me the UK is planning on Darth Maul joining up?
anyone else think of Peter Cris (KISS) when they saw this picture?
i think landing an aircraft wearing these would be a lot more scary ordeal now, since the pilot can now see the ground/runway coming at him/her at 100+ mph, in high resolution...
on a side note, with this helmet they can finally do away with the canopy all together, that outta improve aerodynamics by a good deal?
They cant do away with the canopy because what if the helmet breaks? They are screwed then.
Similarly, what if the canopy breaks? Even with the helmet on?
Cool.As.Fuck.
Not only do you get an HD HUD to kick ass, you get to look badass and strike the fear into your enemies while doing so.
Unfortunately, the enemy won't get a chance to be afraid because they will get shot down before they realize they should be afraid. Ideally, the enemy will never see it coming.
Darth Maul dressed for Halloween.
Looks like Darth Maul had a bastard child with one of the sand people.
£66 million a pop to protect the UK & the US from men in robes converting kids, women and other men into killing themselves for the cause. Crazy!
Luke... I am your father.
You, sir, are my hero.
So everyone flying the joint Strike fighter is going to have green eyes?
This is the coolest shit I've ever seen! Too bad Al-Qaeda and Osama are in caves and they use smoke signals. As much as I love technology, I think our battles are not gonna be won with fancy planes but with boots on the ground.
But will it plug into my iPod Touch?
Todays stocks:
WAR+3 SFTY-5 ENVRNMNT-10
I don't get why the eyes are green. Is the projector flashing the image right onto the guy's eyeballs?
That's f'ed up man. I'm gonna have nightmares now.
Particularly interesting is that this visioning technology is being used on a jet with stealth technology to allow pilots to be able to see "as if the plane was not there". In other words, the plane is invisible to both the folks on the ground and the pilot!
One wonders at what point we'll even need to have pilots in the plane, and this really does become a video game.
welcome to 2001!
Oh no! We are working with the Dominion aren't we? (No clue what I am talking about? Watch Star Trek Deep Space 9 ;) )
This system is ALMOST as good as the IR feature on Sony camcorders that can see through women's clothing.
SICK!
This looks cool but since I know how the government works, this is just a pipe dream. That and the JSF is a bit behind schedule... What else is new with government? I do like the F-22s they are awesome flying around Langley.
-Gaming News
http://www.clan.net
Damn. I thought they would be *actually* seeing through it, with x-ray vision or something. Interesting way to work around the whole flying-in-a-solid thing, but a little less cool than the whole seeing-through-solids thing.
Ah, like Superman? What don't the just lease Wonder Woman's plane?
[quote]yes, and this piece of kit was created by the British... whats your point??
Anyway, yes the JSF program was started by the yanks, but the Brits are seen as an equal partner as they're putting so much money into it. they're not just paying for the licence to build the aircraft, they're actually helping build it!/quote]
Looks like you didn't read the article
Dear Engadget,
its is Plexiglas(R) not plexiglass. The invention was made by Germans and was stolen by the US gouvernment during the second wolrd war.
Respect the world, start small by doing this
Regards
Magggus
will it blend?
iPhone ripoff......
It's definitly no Plexiglass. It is PC (polycarbonate).
Plexiglass, by the way has to be written Plexiglas(R)
The German invention is a reg. trademark!
They're taking over my brain.
I'd still rather have the big brother, the F-22 Raptor...
Seems to me if you could wrangle the bandwidth this could make armed UAVs much more flexible. Sit a pilot in a 'simulator' wearing this and he would virtually be flying the aircraft.
You could be that would put serious lag as the signal would have to bounce from several satellites
also an enemy could jam the link.