1969 – Virtual Cockpit/Helmet Mounted Sight

Dr. Tom Furness began working on HMDs for the US Air Force in 1967, moving from Heads Up Displays, to Helmet Mounted Displays, to Head Mounted Displays in 1969. At first, the idea was just to be able to take some of the mental load off of the pilot and allow them to focus on the most important instruments. Later, this evolved into linking the head of the pilot to the gun turret, allowing them to fire where they looked. The current F-35 Glass Cockpit HMD can be traced directly to his work. In a Glass Cockpit or even Glass Tank, the pilot or driver is able to see through their plane or tank via an HMD, giving them a complete unobstructed view of the battlefield through sensors and cameras mounted in the hull. His Retinal Display Systems, which do away with pixels by writing directly on the eye with lasers, is possibly similar to the solution of Magic Leap.