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Ascension Flock
Trackers Selected for F/A-22
Air Combat Simulation
BURLINGTON, VERMONT; JUNE
1, 2004: Lockheed
Martin Aeronautics has
taken delivery of eight Ascension
Technology Flock of Birds®
for use in its
F/A-22 Raptor Air Combat Simulation
(ACS) program. Selection
of the versatile tracker once
again confirms the Flock of
Birds’ leading edge status
in the motion tracking field.
With a diverse resume of applications,
the Flock of Birds continues
to be successfully integrated
in to the training, development
and simulation programs for
the world’s top military aircraft.
The state-of-the-art ACS
facility in Marietta, Georgia,
is comprised of four manned
F/A-22 cockpit simulators
surrounded by 360-degree visual
systems, two reconfigurable
aircraft simulators, eight
adversary aircraft “threat”
stations, four adversary air
defense stations and several
AWACS simulation stations.
The adversary weapons systems
simulations incorporate air
defense training for crews
using up-to-the-minute threat
intelligence.
Four Flock of Birds trackers
have already been in use in
the F/A-22 cockpits. They
are used for tracking when
the pilot’s head is out of
the Heads Up Display (HUD)
sensing area also known as
the “eye-box.” When the pilot’s
head, tracked by a Flock sensor,
moves out of the eye-box,
the projected HUD image distorts,
simulating what the pilot
would then see through the
real HUD.
Eight additional Flocks will
be used in the threat stations,
which are simple aircraft
cockpit stations with realistic
sticks, throttles and rudder
peddles. The threat stations
can be reconfigured during
a simulation run to represent
different threatening or friendly
aircraft which the F/A-22
is trying to down or protect.
The Flock trackers will simulate
helmet mounted cueing systems
for particular missile launchers
available in some threat aircraft.
The Flock of Birds can be
configured to track from one
to four sensors simultaneously
in real time with six degrees
of freedom. Five times less
susceptible to distortion
caused by nearby conductive
metals than AC magnetic technology,
the Flock’s DC technology
makes it ideal for use in
metal intensive environments
such as a cockpit interior.
The Flock is used for head,
hand, body or instrument tracking
in flight simulation, virtual
reality, scientific visualization,
medical imaging and 3D graphics
control and manipulation.
The F/A-22s represented in
the ACS encompass simulations
of the Raptor’s radar, electronic
warfare and communication
systems, navigation and identification
systems—all part of the aircraft’s
advanced integrated avionics.
Built by Lockheed Martin in
partnership with Boeing, the
F/A-22 is scheduled to become
operational in 2005. It has
unprecedented fighter and
attack capabilities with a
balanced design of stealth,
supercruise speed and extreme
agility. For more information
about Lockheed Martin Corporation,
visit www.lockheedmartin.com.
Ascension Technology Corporation
(Vermont, USA) develops magnetic,
optical and inertial motion-tracking
solutions for 3D computer-graphics
applications in military targeting
systems, simulation, virtual
reality, biomechanics, animation
and medicine. For more information,
visit www.ascension-tech.com.
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