In article ,
Shiver Me Timbers wrote:

[[.. munch ..]]

Cost aside.... What sort of benefit could a pilot get from being able
to see what's ahead of them by having a FLIR display in the cockpit.

The more I watch these cop shows with the eye in the sky clearly
showing the bad guy, cars, streets, buildings, etc., the more I wonder
if and when something like that is going to be available in the cockpit
of both commercial and general aviation planes.

Del (or anyone) what if you had to fly between to large hills, down a
fiord, low in foggy weather with a radio tower nearby, blah blah blah.

Could a FLIR system show a radio tower with guy wires ahead of you on a
dark and foggy night, or in a snow storm or thunder storm.

*VERY* poorly, if at all.

You've either got to have a 'hot' source (relative to the background),
or you have to 'light' the scene with IR, to see things.

If you can't see the visible beacons on the tower, you're not likely to
be able to see it on IR, either. sufficient 'crud' in the way blocking
the visible light _will_ similarly interfere with the IR.

"broadband sensor" (IR/visible/UV) 'low light'/'night-vision' imaging
systems would have the best chance of seeing 'something' at a longer
distance.

Are these systems available, because I can see a day when they will be
available in cars. Imaging coming across a foggy patch of road and
flipping on the old FLIR system to see where the curve in the road is
or whether there's a bunch of cars piling up in front of you.

Without an illumination source, IR systems _don't_ work worth a d*mn for
seeing _passive_ things (e.g. the roadway) under many conditions,
unfortunately. The 'bunch of cars' has a better chance of being seen, since
they _are_ self-illuminating at IR, but the range improvement is -not-
terribly dramatic in heavy fog/snow situations,


If cost is _absolutely_ no object, there is also high-precision 'mapping'
radar. grin