[Seahawk]

I have seen the Airbus video before and it always makes me smile for a host of reasons.

Another fun navigation fact that GPS exposed just in case you guys wonder why I geek out on this stuff:

In the SH-60B, that had a very integrated avionics system (radar/ESM/acoustics/data links/doppler nav/radio navigation, etc.) all presented on a multi function display with different "modes"), the designers built geographic "bins" at a certain size for specific missions with an assumed accuracy requirement, very similar to any map program available today.

If I remember correctly, the smallest "bin" was 100yds by 100 yards, more than enough accuracy for the nav systems at the time...long time ago.

During the GPS testing, we were getting odd data sets against the GPS accuracy spec, which for the "undithered" GPS we were testing, was very tight...within feet tight.

BTW, the GPS system "dithered" the civilian GPS signal in those days, meaning it was not as accurate as the military GPS systems. I have no idea why.

Our issue was the accuracy numbers just were not there: 20 yds, 10 yds, exactly on top, then right back to 50 yds. Really interesting and we based the tests on what the entire nav system was seeing and measured the deltas on the MFD.

We decided to enter the same fly-to-point based on a surveyed runway approach and capture it multiple times from a hover, slowly move away, re-enter he FTP and capture it again. We even landed and taxied to the FTP.

Same error sets.

The SH-60B was developed by IBM in Owego, NY...the helo was Sikorsky but all the avionics were IBM, magnificent stuff in the 80's.

So we called the IBM engineers and they came down to Pax to get familiar with our test methodologies and test results.

Five minutes into the first meeting, an IBM guy says, "I know what's wrong."

He explained: "When we designed the tactical symbology and how we would present it to the pilots, we felt that there was no real need to assign the fly to points to the exact same bin position so they just drop into the bin randomly...we don't know where in the nav bin the symbology is, exactly."

This was perfectly acceptable in the days before GPS...100 yds by 100 yds was ballin'

They went back to Owego and gave us a new s/w baseline in a month that assigned tactical symbology to the same exact spot in the nav bin...accuracy problem vanished.

So much more.

Different day and time.

I have been on a s/w phoncon today where all of the above fits on a card the size of a credit card for our UAS.