Thales today announced that it has been selected by Airbus to be supplier of the Head-up Display (HUD) for the A350 XWB aircraft. Thales's HUD, either in a single or dual configuration, will be available as a customer option in the A350 XWB catalogue from the first aircraft in 2013. This contract adds to the previous selections announced by Thales at the beginning of the year for the Interactive Control and Display Systems and the Air Data and Inertial Reference Unit for the new A350 XWB aircraft.

Thales's new HUD based on innovation and proven technologies already available on all aircraft within the Airbus Fly-By-Wire family, will be further optimized for the A350 XWB. The HUD provides a flexible platform for growth to support new features such as Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS) and potentially Surface Guidance System (SGS) and Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), in addition to offering unique symbology entirely consistent with Airbus' cockpit philosophy.

Bertrand Zundel, Head of Thales's Test pilots states, "The HUD represents an important safety element for the pilot providing him with essential, intuitive and immediate information in terms of situational awareness during critical flight phases such as take-off and landing, especially in worldwide areas where the traffic growth is significant and can impact on the overall level of flight safety."

The new HUD system has been re-designed to bring even more innovative advantages to operators – head clearance is significantly increased bringing greater comfort to pilots and the graphical generation is embedded within the Display Units, allowing a simplified architecture for the overall cockpit solution. This higher level of integration means that the weight of the HUD system is reduced by around 16kg (dual HUD installation), in addition to reducing the number of part numbers.

Thales has been a precursor of the HUD over the last 30 years, it's HUDs are available on all production Airbus aircraft.