17:42 GMT, November 18, 2009 SELEX Galileo, of Finmeccanica, is pleased to announce the presentation of the Company’s new VigilX system at the Dubai Air Show 15-20th November 2009. The system, which represents a breakthrough in situational awareness for helicopter and fixed wing pilots and aircrews, has already been evaluated by the UK MoD in recent flight trials and has been demonstrated to a number of major US helicopter manufacturers and avionics integrators.

The VigilX system is based on distributed sensor technology combined with advanced image processing algorithms. It allows pilots and flight crew to “see through” the hull of their aircraft by fusing onboard sensor data to generate a 360° panoramic integrated picture around the aircraft providing complete situational awareness. VigilX allows operations in zero light and provides enhanced visibility in poor weather and brown-out conditions, enabling day and night operations in all environments (DNAE).

VigilX is a scalable and modular system which can be readily configured to meet the individual needs of specific rotary or fixed wing platforms. The sensor head supports different sensor types including Infra Red, colour TV and low light level cameras (many of these sensors can be provided by the Company leveraging on its wide electro-optic product portfolio). In addition data from existing on board sensors can be used by VigilX. The system has been designed to have an extremely low latency which allows it to be operated via a helmet mounted display (HMD) using a head tracker. VigilX also supports standard cockpit multifunctional displays (MFD) or head-up displays (HUD). It has been designed to be compatible with commonly used terrain databases.

VigilX is currently on display on the Finmeccanica stand at the Dubai Air Show. An interactive system displaying live sensor data in addition to recorded flight data is being demonstrated.


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For more news of the Dubai Airshow 2009, please see http://www.defpro.com/confairs/profile/dubai_airshow_20092/pressroom/.