While Dassault’s new FalconEye combined vision system is a welcome cockpit innovation that pilots greatly appreciate, the safety benefits for Falcon 8X buyers are also readily apparent, according to Fréderic Lascourrèges. FalconEye can be seen in the cockpit of the 8X parked on the MEBAA static display in front of the Dassault chalet (A11).

Four out of five 8X buyers have opted for the FalconEye option. “FalconEye gives extra situational awareness to pilots,” he said, allowing them to keep looking through the windshield when flying approaches to airports in challenging weather conditions, especially those surrounded by high terrain.

FalconEye will be certified soon on the 8X and is already approved on the 2000S/LXS models. What makes FalconEye unique is that it blends synthetic vision, thermal (infrared) and low-light camera imagery into a single depiction of the outside world on the pilot’s head-up display (HUD). The Elbit HUD offers a much larger field of view, compared to earlier HUDs, with 40 degrees horizontal by 30 degrees vertical.

Six different multispectral sensors make up the FalconEye camera package, four for daytime, one for night and one thermal (infrared). The system fuses the images from all of the sensors to present the best image to the pilot, and one of the sensors can see LED lights, which are found at a growing number of airports.

Earlier HUDs showed only flight instrument information, with later models adding infrared imagery. FalconEye is the first HUD to be certified with combined vision.

“What was missing from previous HUDs was situational awareness,” explained Lascourrèges. “They had all the flight information but the pilot had no idea of what the outside world looked like.” The synthetic vision view adds a database-driven depiction of the outside world on the top of the HUD, while the FalconEye multispectral camera imagery is shown on the bottom of the HUD, especially surrounding the runway, giving pilots a clear view of the outside world even when flying in clouds.

Future capabilities for FalconEye include operational credit to descend to 100 feet using the HUD during instrument approaches, which means the ability to land in conditions that normally would require diversion to another airport. This operational credit is expected to be approved following the 8X FalconEye certification.