They are working on the terrain following radar. If you've seen "Flight of the Intruder" you would recognize this.
Heatblur Simulations is proud to share some work in progress on the DCS: A-6E's radar and Terrain Clearance mode.
Since we are not blessed with the eyes of a chameleon, the Bombardier/Navigator's Radar Display and the Pilot's Analog Display Indicator (ADI) have been combined into a single debug windows that allows us to see them side by side, along with the terrain outside the cockpit for comparison. Please note that the cockpit model is a placeholder and does not represent the final product.
In the included example, the radar is in Terrain Clearance (TC) mode that restricts the display to ~8.5nm and the minimum scan angle to ~60°. The radar's primary purpose is to drive the ADI display in this mode.
During normal flight, the pilot's ADI is similar to the F-14 Tomcat’s VDI; however, when TC mode is selected, it displays a 53° (horizontal) x 26° (vertical) pictorial representation of the terrain ahead of the aircraft based on the data supplied by the radar.
On the ADI, we see the black Horizon Line and Fiducial Markers that help mark our pitch and bank attitude. In the center are the Steering Symbol and Flight Path Lines, currently locked to the aircraft heading. Behind this symbology are displayed ten discrete bands, each representing a range contour, from ~0.25nm out to 8.5nm. Bands 1 and 7 are permanently coded with range coding bars for identification, while bands 3-6 may be selected for coding - that is, to display the vertical black bars - based on pilot input. In the example below, the pilot selects band 4 for coding.
The pilot maintains clearance over the terrain by flying the aircraft so that the Offset Impact Bar (black and green, fixed near the bottom of the screen) is situated above one of the coded bands 3-6. The selected band determines the clearance height and smoothness of the ride.
Finally, at the bottom of the screen is the dark green Altitude Curtain. This moves up and down the screen relative to the Horizon Line to represent the radar altitude. Its range is not linear and does not correspond to the terrain contour bands, but serves as a visual guide to aid piloting.
More symbology remains to be added, but hopefully, this demonstration gives some insight into the progress on a rather unique feature of the DCS A-6E Intruder.
v6,
boNes
Getting Excited about the A-6!
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Getting Excited about the A-6!
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