Recently, in the official promotional video, there was a domestic Z-20 tactical utility helicopter, using the airborne pilot night vision system (hereinafter referred to as PNVS) for night flight, especially the imaging picture of the system is the first time to make public, but also let the outside world see the domestic advanced Z-20 helicopter for the first time This "unique secret".
Footage captured by the PNVS system of the Z-20
For modern helicopters, the use of optoelectronic systems to assist in night flights is already very common. However, PNVS is not available in all helicopters, it first appeared as part of the optoelectronic system of specialized gunships, and until now, there are still many models of gunships that have not been equipped with PNVS for pilots alone. The most advanced Z-20 helicopter in China is currently the only non-dedicated armed helicopter in the world with PNVS as the basic configuration!
In the red circle is the PNVS of the straight-20
Close-up of PNVS of Z-20
The Z-20's PNVS, which is installed under the nose radome, will not affect the use of airborne collision avoidance/weather radar. This system looks like the PNVS of the late Z-10 model, and it is also a square set of equipment. Since the system is mounted under the nose, it can achieve a 360 surround view and a large pitch angle, allowing the pilot to see the most critical rear situations. And the PNVS of the Z-20 is designed as the standard configuration of the helicopter avionics system, so it is connected to the basic integrated avionics display system of the helicopter, and its advantage is that the imaging screen is displayed in front of the pilot on the two integrated displays used to display flight data, instead of the optional system, the picture is displayed on the additional mission display between the two pilots, which is more conducive to the pilot to view.
A typical modern helicopter integrated avionics system with a mission display in the center and two flight data displays for the pilot on each side
Judging from the picture, the field of view of this system is very wide, and the imaging quality is moderate, but there is a large gap between the image quality ratio and the photoelectric observation and sighting equipment. However, for helicopter night flight, it is only necessary to ensure that the pilot can see the position and outline of various obstacles, and the specific details are not important, so this image quality as a balance between cost and effect is enough to ensure that the pilot can use it normally.
The PNVS image quality of the Z-20 is moderate, and the balance between cost and effect is better
If the helicopter is not equipped with PNVS, pilots can only fly at night by wearing binocular night vision devices. Head-mounted night vision devices were developed from binocular night vision devices used by individual soldiers in the ground forces, which were mounted on a special bracket in front of the helmet when used by pilots. For flying, this way of wearing individual night vision devices is not very convenient. First of all, the helmet with the night vision device will be heavier, and the pilot will be fatigued if worn for a long time; secondly, after wearing the night vision device, it is easy to bump in the narrow cockpit, especially some instinctive probe movements will often hit the bulkhead; the third point is that the field of view of the binocular night vision device is small; the most critical problem is that although the outside environment can be seen clearly after wearing the night vision device, it will not be able to see the instrument display clearly. Therefore, the head-mounted night vision device can only partially solve the problem, and it is not as effective as the PNVS system.
Head-mounted binocular night vision devices can cause severe fatigue when worn for a long time
The world's first helicopter PNVS, appeared on the American AH-64 "Apache" helicopter gunship. In the nose position, the aircraft is designed with two sets of independent optoelectronic systems, of which the huge barrel optoelectronic system below is the electro-optical sighting system (TADS) used by the gunner, including the visible light television viewing system and the infrared night vision observation and aiming system, as well as the laser ranging and irradiation system, which is used for target search, aiming and laser irradiation. Above it is the AN/AAQ-11 Airborne Pilot Night Vision System (PNVS), which is used by pilots for night flight.
Design of optoelectronic systems for AH-64
The AN/AAQ-11 system is a forward-looking infrared night vision system, and the night vision picture captured by the infrared camera can be displayed on a monitor installed on the pilot's instrument panel, so that the pilot can see the surrounding environment clearly in the dark night sky and prevent the helicopter from colliding and falling. The system can be controlled by the pilot to carry out a certain range of rotation and pitch, its left and right rotation angles are 90 degrees, and the pitch angle is 20 degrees up to 45 degrees down, so it can provide the pilot with a large range of night field of view.
Schematic diagram of the AAQ-11 PNVS system
The AH-64 TADS+PNVS optoelectronic system operates independently, and the reason why two systems are needed is to allow the two pilots on the helicopter to rely on their respective systems at night to carry out flight and attack operations at the same time without interfering with each other. Its architecture has become the basic architecture of the optoelectronic system of modern special armed helicopters, and later the special armed helicopters developed by countries around the world are basically designed in accordance with this framework to design the optoelectronic system, such as Russia's Mi-28, the anti-tank version of the "Tiger" helicopter jointly developed by France and Germany, etc., China's Z-10 is also designed according to the complete architecture of the optoelectronic system, but the equipment used in the early model and the later model is different, and the early model uses a barrel TADS+ with a larger size and weightSpherical PNVS, later models use lightweight spherical TADS+ square PNVS with better performance.
Early Z-10H optoelectronic system configuration
However, there are still many armed helicopters based on load capacity, price, mission setting and other reasons, not equipped with a complete architecture of the optoelectronic system, these armed helicopters are only installed with TADS, and there is no independent PNVS, such as the "Tiger" helicopter fire support version, China's Z-19, etc., and the Russian Ka-52 is not equipped with PNVS, which is due to its backward combat ideas. Although the TADS of these helicopters can also work part-time PNVS to serve the pilot when they are not performing attack missions, if the TADS is conducting target search or weapon guidance, it cannot provide the pilot with night vision, let alone turn according to the pilot's needs, and it is difficult for the helicopter to ensure flight safety.
The Z-19 does not have PNVS, and pilots can only wear binocular night vision devices for night flights
Therefore, whether a helicopter is equipped with PNVS or not can be considered as a measure of the capabilities of its onboard optoelectronic system. Because PNVS is for flight, and TADS or the optoelectronic turret for search and rescue purposes is for specific tasks, if you can't even fly safely at night, it is empty talk to complete the mission. What needs to be emphasized here is that the Z-20 will be PNVS as standard, so that even any of the basic version of the Z-20 has the ability to perform low-altitude flight missions and bad weather at night, in complex terrain, night flight has become as simple as day, and night will no longer be an obstacle to flight in front of Z-20!