Aircraft

Russia's MiG Aircraft Company develops 3D flight simulator for the MiG-29 Jet Fighter

View 20 Images
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29
View gallery - 20 images

Russian Aircraft Company's MiG is best known for its fighter planes which have been used by the USSR, China, North Korea and North Vietnam since the beginning of WWII.

These days, the former Government-owned RAC MiG is a publicly traded entity and competes on the open market with its technologies, having more than 1600 of its MiG-29 fighters in operation in 25 countries.

Now MiG is claiming a major first in military aviation with the launch of a 3D flight simulator at the Dubai Air Show, providing volumetric visualization of beyond-the-cockpit space for trainee top guns. The simulator comes complete with the MiG-29's cockpit and actual control systems.

Existing military simulators have a 2D projection system, at best projected on a wrap-around screen, imitating surround environment in the more or less precise manner, but they do not provide volumetric visualization.

Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29

As a result, pilots face problems in assessing the distance to the key virtual objects being monitored, as well as size of those objects, making it difficult to perform precisely when flying the virtual fighter in close proximity to other aircraft, in air refueling, or on the approach to a landing strip or aircraft carrier.

Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29

Some advanced systems offer better visualization of actual distances in the beyond-the-cockpit space but such simulators are huge in size, and have a limited arc of visibility.

MiG claims it has developed a better visualization system with a much higher level of accuracy from the virtual cockpit. The system produces stereo imagery of the aerial environment using the same type of glasses as are used in 3D cinema to create a far more realistic illusion of real flight, and experience so far suggests even inexperienced pilots can easily assess distances to and dimensions of other aircraft and objects.

Guests at this week's Dubai Air Show can try the 3D MiG-29 simulator for themselves.

Russian Aircraft Company's MiG-29

View gallery - 20 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
5 comments
Michael Kruger
This isn\'t altogether very impressive. you can build this setup easily with OTS components, would cost some money, yes, but everything is there. Heck, you can even do it for very cheap, if you use a standard TV or large monitor ,red-blue glasses and iZ3D drivers which are free/cheap. For the instrument panel, seems like they used a single monitor which can be had for less than 200 dollars too. So, overall, I don\'t see the big deal!
Rolf Hawkins
\"Russian Aircraft Company\'s MiG is best known for its fighter planes which have been used by the USSR, China, North Korea and North Vietnam since the beginning of WWII.\"
Really? I think you mean \"after\" WWII. North Vietnam, for example didn\'t get their first MiG-17 until 1964, well after the end of WWII.
VisSimGuru
I\'m sorry, but the claims of a stereo 3D flight simulator from MiG being the \"first in military aviation\" is just flat out wrong. Whom ever wrote this article should do a bit more digging, and not just rely on a press release.
The first system that I worked on was all the way back in 1997, the next in 2004, and then again in 2009. The difference here might be that no one has done this for MiG aircraft. But in the US, just do some checking of IEEE papers, go to a Military Vis Sim trade show, look at any of the commercial Vis Sim tools, or just drop on down to your local GameStop ;)
Some examples: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=886902 http://www.imersa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42:eas-announce-new-fulldome-technology&catid=56:news-about-members http://www.virtualsimtech.com/flightsimulators.htm http://www.presagis.com/products_services/products/modeling-simulation/visualization/vega_prime/#overview http://www.metavr.com/technology/stereo3d.html
Set the way back machine to 1994, and the heyday of SGI. Just search on stereo 3d. http://www.hitl.washington.edu/scivw/scivw-ftp/commercial/VR-Resource-Guide.txt
Thomas_Mac
@Rolf Hawkins The first MiG, the MiG-1 was produced in 1940 and used by the Russians in WW II, as well as the later MiG-3 and MiG-7
Randall Arias
I would love to see some of this amazing machines at the upcoming Duluth Air Show. Crossing my fingers here! ;)