Contributor

Harry Weisberger

Esterline CMC Electronics (Booth No. 9740) is showing how its TacView portable mission display brings numerous capabilities to the helicopter cockpit here at Heli-Expo 2012 in Dallas. It is designed for a range of missions, from search and rescue, close air support, firefighting and police operations to medical and offshore oil and gas transport.


Recently, TacView was selected by L-3 Communications to provide a Situational Awareness Data Link (SADL) for U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. The TacView system will interface with aircraft tactical radios and GPS receivers to support L-3 Communications’ Joint Range Extension data link gateway and digital map application to display real-time situational awareness and digital command and control to the aircrew.


TacView gives access to moving maps, live weather, approach plates, checklists, flight and maintenance manuals, frequency and callsign lists, passenger and cargo manifests as well as any other customer-created Windows-based applications, software and documents. Designed for autonomous operation in harsh environments, TacView can be installed and removed in seconds.


It is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) system with processing power and flexibility for numerous mission-enhancing paperless-cockpit applications.


This night-vision-imaging-system-compatible display interfaces seamlessly with most aircraft data networks, and can often be installed without modification to the aircraft’s legacy systems. TacView runs Microsoft XP-compliant software.


The TacView system is flying on the U.S. Air National Guard C-130H Hercules as part of the Real-Time Information in the Cockpit program. It has been selected for installation on the C-130T, the international C-130J and the USAF C-17.