Glass eye

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved Cobham’s synthetic-vision glass cockpit for helicopter use.

Traditional cockpits rely on mechanical gauges to display information.

A glass cockpit, on the other hand, uses several computerised displays to relay flight information.

The new synthetic-vision cockpit, from global defence-systems specialist Cobham, based in Dorset, has been FAA-approved for single-pilot IFR operation of the Bell 412 helicopter.

This marks the world’s first IFR approval for a synthetic-vision system in a helicopter.

The search and rescue unit of North Slope Borough, Alaska will be the first customer to have Cobham’s electronic flight-instrument system (EFIS) installed on a 412.

Arrow Aviation, a helicopter-maintenance provider based in Louisiana in the US, was selected for installing Cobham’s EFIS.