Remote thermal detection

On Monday, October 3, 2016 at 8:12:38 AM UTC-5, ND wrote:
A HUD would be cool, but don't you think it would be a bit of a problem, or annoyance, keeping track of the towplane on tow, finding oncoming traffic, especially on the ridge, and obstructing part of your view in general? i mean it's a cool idea, but is it practical?

It's really not a HUD that you want, it's a HMD (Helmet Mounted Display) - now being used in most fighters (look up JHMCS). A HUD only covers a small piece of sky in front of you - it's really just a fancy gunsight. A HMD is more like a super Google Glass - puts the appropriate data in front of your eyes wherever you are looking. So for example, in a hypothetical glider-optimized BHMD (Bucket Hat Mounted Display), you would see airspeed, altitude, vario, heading, a pointer to the next turnpoint, reachable airfields, FLARM and ADS-B aircraft, etc; essentially you never have to look down into the cockpit.

With the head tracking tech used for VR, it's not really too far fetched - but we may need bigger canopies to fit over our helmets!

Kirk
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