Some fighter pilots are now training with a simulator that can depict the effects of firing a weapon while using night vision goggles.
“This can be quite startling,” says Chris Henderson, vice president for product development at Presagis, a Canadian technology company that developed the software. Boeing integrated the program into a full-mission package that is now being evaluated as a trainer for F-15 Eagle tactical fighter pilots.
“Often, our pilots don’t experience the effects of a weapons launch with night vision goggles during training,” Henderson adds. “And it can be like shining a bright flashlight in someone’s eyes.”
Incorporating a nighttime weapons launch into training programs has been difficult in the past because it requires developers to calculate the effects of a sudden flash of light on both the goggles and the pilot’s eyes — and then to calculate the time it takes both to readjust. Presagis had already researched these effects, so it incorporated knowledge from past projects into the program.
Boeing leveraged Presagis’ software into a simulation package that allows pilots to perform entire F-15 Eagle missions — from pre-flight exercises to the landing. Pilots sit in a model cockpit, and they view on a computer screen what they would see through the front window of an F-15.
The package also incorporates weather factors — like snow, rain and fog — that affect a pilot’s ability to control the aircraft and fire weapons.