Diamond Aircraft Readies Synthetic Vision

Diamond Aircraft has installed Garmin's G1000-based Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT), and it will be unveiled at Sun 'n Fun today. Garmin announced the system had been certified on yesterday and apparently did not want to waste any time showing it off.

A Diamond DA40 with the system installed will be on display at the announcement. It will be offered on all new aircraft from Diamond as an option for just under $10,000, a fraction of the price when compared to SVT on a business jet.The system provides a 3D depiction of terrain and hazards on the PFD with water, land, and sky. If it senses a hazard, it tells you that you are going to die colors the terrain in the appropriate colors and obstacles grow larger as they get closer. Air traffic is also depicted and the SVT system produces highway in the sky "rectangles" to fly through.

So now flying on an SVT display is no different than trying to accomplish an achievement on Flight Simulator X or Star Fox. Now we will have more non-instrument rated private pilot flying through the soup because they think they can play video games. Great.



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