“We believe the electronic flight bag is just the beginning of a trend,” said Philippe Roy, general manager of Mercury Computer Systems’ avionics and unmanned systems group. Roy made the statement Tuesday at NBAA’07, where he announced the integration of Mercury’s forward-looking infrared (FLIR) display into a pair of new high-end platforms for the company’s VistaNav synthetic-vision system (SVS)–the CIS-2000 and CIS-2200 cockpit information systems.

Mercury (Booth No. 5123), which is based in Chelmsford, Mass., bills VistaNav as an “affordable, intuitive cockpit information system that provides ultimate situational awareness.” Its features include 3-D synthetic vision, built-in flight planning, a traffic-avoidance option, FAA airport diagrams and approach plates and a terrain awareness warning system (TAWS) view.

The FLIR display has been incorporated into the 3-D/2-D split-view navigation screen of the VistaNav SVS. A FLIR image is superimposed with the aircraft’s altitude information in the 3-D plane and VistaNav 2-D navigation information with TAWS on the 2-D plane. 

According to Roy, the CIS-2000 series was designed to surpass existing electronic flight bag options and offers much more than a display for the FLIR camera. The series features powerful graphics, sunlight-readable touch-glass screens, dual USB ports, sturdy metal enclosures, GPS-enabled airport diagrams and more. Both the CIS-2000 and CIS-2200 can operate on backup batteries in emergencies.

Mercury also announced that BAE Systems has selected its synthetic-vision display for a rotorcraft brownout landing system. This is the second such award to Mercury from BAE Systems for VistaNav SVS technology.