GB1390357A - Ground-based flight simulation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1390357 Television flight simulator REDIFON Ltd 28 March 1972 [2 April 1971] 8509/71 Heading H4F In a colour television display for a flight simulator, the detail of the image of the ground or sky in selected bands of the display can be progressively replaced by featureless areas to represent ground fog and/or low cloud and these bands varied in position and slope in accordance with flight computers readings of aircraft pitch and/or roll. In the display of Fig. 1, the simulated aircraft has a roll to the right of # and pitch upwards (horizontal line H-H<SP>1</SP> below centre O). The area CDEG is at maximum clarity, the area ABLJ is at minimum clarity or clouded; and the area EGLJ varies in clarity from maximum (line EG) tominimum (line JL). If the amplitude Z of a cloud video signal to be progressively substituted for the ground/sky video signal, varies in the Y (frame) direction according to M = slope of brightness change, y 1 = co-ordinate of zero amplitude and a simulated roll shift of # occurs, then the band should shift to a position defined by and the circuit of Fig. 3 is required to produce such an analogue variation on the green (68), red (67) and blue (70) video signals of the normal input. The flight computer provides signals representing Sin # and Cos # from 1 and feeds them to integrators 6 and 8 together with x and y deflection signals. The resulting x Sin # and y Cos # signals are combined with Sin # and Cos # signals in subtracting amplifier 12, via weighting resistors 11. The instructor sets, in a console 30, the relative visibilities of cloud and ground, the colour of cloud and/or mist at day, dusk and night andthe thickness of the cloud and/or mist. Signals proportional to these factors are combined at 66, 67 with computer derived pitch and aircraft height data to give position data for the cloud and/or mist and are also fed via red, blue, green colour gates 43-48, to variable cloud/mist amplifiers 18, 20, 22 for control by function (A). The ground/sky tricolour signals are similarly fed to variable amplifiers 17, 19, 21, for inverse control by function (A), with corresponding colour cloud/fog and ground/sky signals being combined at 23, 24, 25.