See the light

A head-up-DISPLAY (HUD) system that generates critical flight data within a glass surface has been designed for small aircraft.

The technology, called Q-HUD from

, is unlike current HUD systems that use a bulky overhead projector to display information onto glass.

Q-HUD manipulates light using holographic waveguides so that the images appear in the combiner (the semi-transparent display in front of the pilot), rather than being projected onto it. This means it takes up considerably less room in the cockpit, cuts out 50 per cent of the weight of traditional equipment and costs less than traditional systems.

'The optics arrangement in traditional HUDs is very complex, meaning it can only be used in a big cockpit,' said Paul Childs, BAE Systems's technology lead on the project. 'In commercial aircraft, it sits close to the pilot's head with geometric constraints, which means it has to be fitted to a particular orientation.

'With Q-HUD, we're effectively injecting the image directly into the combiner, allowing us to remove those optics, reduce weight, size and power consumption and produce a small form factor that gives us the ability to put it into any orientation the pilot wants and fit it to smaller aircraft.'