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F-5 HUD Chassis

Technical Information

Catalogue No: C1454
Category: Head-Up Display [HUD]
Object Type: Module/Sub-Assembly/Component
Object Name: F-5 HUD Chassis
Part No: None
Serial No: None
Manufacturer: Marconi Avionics
Division: Airborne Display [ADD]
Platform(s): F-5
Year of Manufacture: circa 1996
Dimensions: Width (mm): 170
Height (mm): 180
Depth (mm): 380
Weight (g): 2,080
Location: Rack RAA12 (collection part) [Mezzanine Store]
Inscription(s):

ENGINEERING USE ONLY
F-5 ASSET

Notes:

This is fundamentally an F-16C/D PDU Chassis but was marked as an F-5 asset so was used on an F-5 upgrade where the standard F-16C/D PDU could be fitted rather than the F-5 long, thin design. This suggests that the upgrade was for a country where the F-5 was used as a lead-in trainer to the F-16 and this Chassis was for a Turkish Air Force upgrade bid.

The F-5 was sold to many countries and provided a simple but effective fighter aircraft with potential for avionic upgrade. The Company worked on various upgrade programmes and in each case a replacement for the existing  Lead Computing Optical Sight (LCOS) was offered.

The earliest such replacement is seen in Catalogue No. C0022. The HUDWAC consists of three line replaceable units; the Pilot’s Display Unit (PDU), an Electronics Unit (EU) and a Weapon Data Input Panel (WDIP).

The physical configuration of the HUDWAC was designed to be drop-in compatible with all known versions of the F-5E/F. Other than removal of the Lead Computing Optical Sight (LCOS) no rearrangement of existing systems nor structural modification was necessary; the new PDU mounts onto the same LCOS tray. The HUDWAC was made to be interchangeable between F-5E’s fitted with the APQ-153 radar and AHRS and those fitted with an APQ-159 radar and an INS without any modifications. The HUDWAC monitors the armament panel switch settings and the in-built software determines the required operating mode which overall makes the system easier to use than the original LCOS.

The PDU gives a field of view nearly twice that of the ASG-29 Lead Computing Optical Sight it replaces. The unit hosts a control panel with switches and a keypad through which mission data such as target elevation and barometric pressure can be loaded. A 16mm film camera or a colour video camera can be attached to the aft end of the PDU. In this aircraft the PDU is hard mounted to a pre-aligned mounting frame, rather than an adjustable Mounting Tray i.e. it is already boresighted to the airframe. The drawback to the installation is that the PDU has to be long and narrow which is reflected in the design of the circuit boards within the unit. The High Voltage Power Supply locates on the underside of the PDU and there would be a Gun Camera and an Up-Front Control Panel fitted to customer requirements.

 

The F-16C (single seat) and F-16D (two seat) variants entered production in 1984. The first C/D version was the Block 25 with improved cockpit avionics and radar which added all-weather capability with Beyond Visual Range (BVR) AIM-7 and AIM-120 air-air missiles. Blocks 30/32, 40/42 and 50/52 were later C/D versions. The LANTIRN Diffractive optics HUD was designed for the new aircraft but development was delayed by the complexity of the manufacturing problems. As an interim the Company offered a wide angle conventional optic design.

The initial order was placed in 1984 and was valued at nearly $50 million (then about £30 million) to cover both development and production. Over 2300 HUD’s were delivered for the F-16 and the system has been the basis of equipment supplied for other programmes such as for the A-7D/K and F-5 adding another 1500 units to the family. In 1985 the F-16C/D design won the Queen’s Award for Technology Improvements to aircraft Head Up Display systems for the Company.

The HUD Pilot's Display Unit (PDU)

The HUD PDU has both a raster and a cursive capability with the first application of ‘cursive in flyback’ in which the same amount of symbology as in the daytime high brightness mode can be drawn on the CRT using the raster flyback period of the Night mode. A good grey scale was provided for sensor video and the system could operate in 525, 625, or 875-line standards. The system accuracy was enhanced by the ability to apply corrections for the windshield. The F-16 windshield in particular acts as a lens which modifies the focus of the system and this is compensated for in the optical module design but in addition there are linear distortions away from the centre of the field of view caused by the curvature of the one-piece canopy and manufacturing variations. It is possible to provide both a generic and a specific correction for the particular aircraft. The optics provides a 25 degree Total Field of View and a 20 degree by 13.5 degree Instantaneous Field of View which was the maximum that could be achieved within the limitations of the 6.7-inch exit lens design and the large distance between the pilot and the HUD occasioned by the reclined high ‘G’ seat.  The exit lens is truncated, and the size is limited by the ability of the glass to withstand thermal shock. The field of view is about the maximum that can be achieved with a conventional refractive optics.

The Cathode Ray Tube is circular but with a blank area at the bottom; the beam is deflected into this area so that raster and cursive display luminance calibration tests can be carried out without illuminating the phosphor. As usual the deflection is magnetic and the focus electro-static. The deflection coils and the matching card are now all constructed by Rank Electronic Tubes and the item is delivered as a Tube Unit Assembly. The venerable P1 phosphor is still used but the final Anode voltage is now a nominal 18kV and the tube operates with a Focus voltage of 2.96kV to 4.76kV.

The Camera was left forward of the Combiner to retain commonality with the LANTIRN design. In a refractive optic design, the outside world and symbology can be captured from aft of the Combiner but with the reflective design this is not possible, and the symbology is added to the outside world view by video mixing after scan conversion in the Electronics Unit.

The Head Up Display castings were all made by Kent Alloys who worked for Medway Investment Castings.

 

The HUD Electronics Unit (EU)

The F-16 C/D Electronics Unit contains twenty circuit boards. The Processor/Symbol Generator uses the MIL-STD 1553B (Standardised Electronic Data Highway) databus architecture, the MIL-STD-1750 (Standardised Computer architecture) processor and the MIL-STD-1589A (Standardised Jovial J73 Computer language) software. This was the first time that all three Standards had been used together and the Company was way ahead of its US rivals in this respect. The foundations for the implementation of these Standards was laid down by FARL from 1978 and led to a highly successful LSI chipset for the 1553 Databus. The HUD EU has comprehensive video mixing and scan conversion and self-contained weapon aiming capability.

 

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