Airborne system for display of collimated images

• US 4,697,879 A
• Filed: 03/03/1986
• Issued: 10/06/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/1985
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thomson-CSF
• Original Assignee: Thomson-CSF
• Inventors: Gerbe, Jean-Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): Henry, Jon W.
• Application Number:
  US06/835,340
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 350/174, 350/602, 340/705, 340/716, 358/250, 358/103, 358/104
• US Class Current: 345/7
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0118 comprising devices for improving the contrast of the display / brillance control visibility
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/012 comprising devices for attenuating parasitic image effects
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0138 comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0165 associated with a head-down display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0101 characterised by optical features G02B27/0172 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/28 Interference filters

Abstract

An airborne display system is provided for viewing a high-definition collimated video image or a high-resolution collimated synthetic image or a combination of both images in superimposed relation by means of head-down display devices mounted on an aircraft instrument panel. The display system comprises a first head-down collimating assembly constituted by a monochrome cathode-ray tube and an optical objective, and a second head-down collimating assembly constituted by a color cathode-ray tube and the same collimating objective. An optical relay device is associated with a partly transparent mirror for transmitting the monochrome image and deviating the intermediate color image formed by the optical relay device to the objective. The reflected image as well as the transmitted image are both located at a distance from the optical objective which is equal to the focal distance.

Claims

1. An airborne system for the display of collimated images comprising a first and a second head-down sighting device provided as instrument panel equipment for the purpose of displaying a first and a second image produced respectively by a first and a second high-key image generator, the first sighting device aforesaid being provided with an optical device for collimating the first image, wherein the optical collimating device also serves to collimate the second image by utilizing in the second device an optical relay objective for transferring the second image in order to form an intermediate image at a distance from an optical mixing element interposed on the optical paths between the first image and the optical collimating device and between the intermediate image and said optical collimating device so that these two images are each seen at the focus of the optical collimating device, the function of said first generator being to produce a high-definition video frequency image and the function of said second generator being to produce a synthetic high-resolution symbol image.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate image formed by the optical relay device is a smaller version of the second image and located in a plane which is symmetrical with the plane containing the first image with respect to a partly transparent mirror constituting the optical mixing element aforesaid.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the first high-key image generator utilizes a monochrome cathode-ray tube for producing said video frequency image and wherein the second high-key image generator utilizes a color cathode-ray tube for producing said synthetic symbol image.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the color cathode-ray tube is a shadowmask tube.

5. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said system further comprises a head-up display device in which the head-up display field is in juxtaposed relation to the common head-down display field of said first and second images.

6. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the optical collimating device is constructed in the form of two components in order to facilitate positioning and mounting of the display devices on the instrument panel, a first component being followed by a first plane mirror for reflecting towards a second reflecting plane mirror which is in turn followed by the second component of said optical collimating device.

7. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the optical mixing element is formed by the assembly of two half-cubes in which the diagonal boundary face is treated so as to be partly transparent, the first image being formed on one face of the cube and the intermediate image being formed on the face which is symmetrical with respect to said diagonal boundary face.

8. A system according to claim 3, wherein the two cathode-ray tubes have substantially parallel optical-axis directions and wherein a third reflecting plane mirror is employed for deviating the direction of one of said cathode-ray tubes towards the optical mixing element.

9. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said system further comprises a filter for attenuating the reflections of parasitic external sources, said filter being placed on the optical exit path of the optical collimating device.