PILOTS' UNREAL WORLD

PILOTS' UNREAL WORLD
How can you land a plane if you can't see the ground? When rough weather dials visibility down to zero, even the most routine landings become fraught with danger.
The U.S. Air Force is trying out a fix for this problem -- an onboard computer that digitally recreates pilots' surroundings. It lets pilots look at a rendered world, when they can't rely on the real one to guide them.
The program -- called "synthetic-vision" -- has been in use on civilian flights for years, National Defense magazine reports. And now the Air Force's 412th Flight Test Squadron is trying it out in a modified C-135 transport plane. Just like night-vision goggles let troopers roam around in the dark, this system is supposed to let pilots see in stormy skies.
But "synthetic-vision" is still years and years away from widespread military use. Digital maps of most major commercial airports already exist; but recreating the rough terrains an Air Force pilot would encounter -- and updating those images in real-time -- is going to take a lot of work.