Posted by John Keller

FARNBOROUGH, England, 16 July 2010. The TopOwl helmet mounted sight and display system (HMSD) from Thales Aerospace in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, is being deployed with French Forces in Afghanistan to provide night vision and targeting for Thales Tiger military helicopter pilots, the company is announcing at the Farnborough International Airshow July 19 to 23 in Farnborough, England.

The Thales TopOwl offers conformal piloting symbology, dark night vision performance, and targeting together with comfort and fatigue reduction. TopOwl military night vision performance has been upgraded to reach level 5, which corresponds to levels of visibility equivalent to a cloudy night with no moon, no peripheral light source, and no starlight, Thales is announcing at Farnborough.

By projecting intensified images onto the helmet visor, TopOwl offers a seamless transition between head-up piloting and head-down instrument monitoring, together with a balanced center of gravity to help reduce pilot fatigue from standard night vision goggles, company officials say.

TopOwl is also capable of switching from intensified image projection to high-resolution infrared image projection with one click for improved visibility and safe flight operations in degraded visual conditions like brownout, whiteout, and nighttime flying.

TopOwl is installed in five helicopter programs: Tiger, NH90, Cobra AH-1Z, Huey UH-1Y, and Rooivalk. More than 700 helmets have been delivered, and more than 1,500 systems will be in service over the next 10 years. It has been chosen by 15 countries for their army, navy and/or air force attack and transport helicopters.

For more information contact Thales Aerospace online at www.thalesgroup.com/aerospace.