I just read an article that I found very interesting. The Air Force has a new ground collision avoidance system that has officially saved its first pilot. Since this new technology has already saved a pilot's life, it's being considered a big success. According to the Air Force, 26% of aircraft losses and 75% of pilot fatalities are caused by ground collisions. The system is called Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) which was developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and NASA.
What this system does is it temporarily takes command of the aircraft from the pilot and executes an automatic recovery maneuver when it detects that an impact with terrain is imminent. The system constantly compares the trajectory of the aircraft with a terrain profile generated from the onboard digital terrain elevation data.
If the system detects a threat, an evasion command is issued and if the pilot takes no action the system automatically assumes control of the plane. The recovery process issues an abrupt roll-to-upright followed by a 5g pull until clearance of the terrain is assured. The system can also be overridden by the pilot at any time. I'm thinking that this must have been required by pilots to make sure they can have control of their aircraft at any time.
Currently this technology is only available in the F-16 fighter jets.
| 
Re: New Ground Collision Avoidance Systems
