Gun camera footage a bygone era?

Cockpit, radar, helmet-mounted display, and other avionics
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by steve2267 » 07 Mar 2017, 20:23

Ever since WWII, aerial combat has produced gun camera or HUD camera footage. Whether it was a P-51 shooting up a FW-190, an F-86 nailing a Mig-15, an F-105 gunning a Mig-17, or an F-15 getting a Hornet in its sights, such footage is always interesting to watch. It usually elicits lots of oohs and ahhs, if not HOOYAHs.

But with the F-35 HMDS, I doubt you could fit a camera in front of or beside the pilot's eyeballs without causing some major ergonomic issues. Will the F-35 be able to record what the pilot saw with accompanying display imagery at time X, or has the era of the gun/HUD camera come and gone?

The only thing that comes to mind is that with DAS, a computer program could probably reproduce or replicate what the pilot saw at time X, but will it be as good as the old gun camera / HUD video?
Take an F-16, stir in A-7, dollop of F-117, gob of F-22, dash of F/A-18, sprinkle with AV-8B, stir well + bake. Whaddya get? F-35.


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by spazsinbad » 07 Mar 2017, 20:36

You'll have to wait for the movie. I'm waiting for F-35C (mebbe the BEE VL?) Carrier Approach Video in 3D SurroundSound.


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by Dragon029 » 07 Mar 2017, 22:17

The HMDS already has a couple of cameras on the forehead, one to give the pilot night vision in the cockpit, another for debriefs and mission analysis.


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by steve2267 » 07 Mar 2017, 23:12

Dragon029 wrote:The HMDS already has a couple of cameras on the forehead, one to give the pilot night vision in the cockpit, another for debriefs and mission analysis.


Sounds like it is built in then. :mrgreen: Now all I have to do is wait 10, 20, 30 years for some footage! :bang:
Take an F-16, stir in A-7, dollop of F-117, gob of F-22, dash of F/A-18, sprinkle with AV-8B, stir well + bake. Whaddya get? F-35.


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by Dragon029 » 08 Mar 2017, 01:29

Here's a close-up of the HMDS Gen III:

hmds gen3.jpg
F-35 HMDS Gen III sensors


Now, I don't know exactly what is what, but if I were to guess:

#1 is the debrief camera - basically just a wide FOV, cellphone-style camera.

#2 might be an LED for lighting the cockpit with IR light.

#3 I'm not sure; could be a light sensor or something to handle camera exposure.

#4 The night vision camera - I did notice though that in at least one video (can't remember which one, so unfortunately I can't show you) that it almost looks like there's IR LEDs in this big aperture, so who knows, maybe I'm wrong and #3 is the NV camera, with #4 being an IR LED and #2 being a visual spectrum / white-light LED or something.


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by steve2267 » 08 Mar 2017, 01:44

It makes sense, though, that there be the ability to debrief using video from the actual flight / mission.
Take an F-16, stir in A-7, dollop of F-117, gob of F-22, dash of F/A-18, sprinkle with AV-8B, stir well + bake. Whaddya get? F-35.



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