WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB Project aims at creating system to allow blind landings of planes

The goal is to land military planes without the need for ground preparation.
DAYTON (AP) -- Researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base are developing a system designed to enable pilots to land transport planes in darkness, fog and blowing sand without having to put troops on the ground to check conditions and set up an instrument landing system.
Military leaders hope the new technology will make it easier for pilots to land planes in zero visibility with hostile forces around.
James McDowell, director of the Autonomous Approach and Landing Capability program, said sending soldiers to pave the way for landings wastes time and risks lives. The military wants to be able to land forces under any conditions -- day or night -- without ground preparation.
"The idea is to be able to go anywhere, anytime," McDowell said.
Blind landings sound simple in an age where airliners can land themselves automatically.
But such planes depend on ground-based aids to find runways hidden by weather. Only a few major airports have facilities that enable commercial jets to land automatically when visibility is nil, McDowell said.
Building on NASA work
NASA has been flying tests in a Boeing 757 airliner equipped with an experimental system that uses radar and infrared sensors to project an image of the runway on a screen in front of the pilot. It takes full advantage of radio beacons and other airport aids.
The researchers at Wright-Patterson are extending NASA's work with a more powerful radar and new computer software that will let a pilot see a runway from farther away and distinguish three-dimensional features.
The current two-dimensional radar system shows deadly obstacles such as hills and trees as flat shadows.
McDowell said Los Angeles-based BAE Systems North America is helping develop the new landing system under a $14 million contract.
He said imaging radars normally require big antennas, but BAE's technology uses an antenna small enough to fit in a system that can be installed on a variety of aircraft.
The crew of a C-130 cargo plane made a blind landing using the new radar in a 1999 study, McDowell said. A dramatic split-screen video of the landing shows the airplane closing in on the runway while nothing but mist appears in the windshield.
The Air Force will begin outfitting a C-130 for a new series of flight tests in July or August at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Unlike the 1999 test, these are to be made solely with on-board navigational gear.
McDowell hopes the tests can be conducted between December 2006 and March 2007.
A related program at Wright-Patterson -- called Opportune Landing System, or OLS -- is designed to identify suitable landing fields from satellite images -- not just big flat spots, but soil conditions, vegetation and other factors that now require advance teams.
"The ultimate vision for OLS is no boots on the ground" before a landing, McDowell said.