The US Army wants to replace the LCD microdisplays with OLEDs in the next generation F-35 helmet

The current F-35 Joint Strike Fighter $400,000 helmet uses an LCD microdisplay (produced by Kopin), which has a "technical bug" - a green glow (from the LED backlighting) that prevents pilots from seeing a carrier's lights at night.

F-35 helmet HMD photo

The US Navy is working to replace the LCD microdisplay with an OLED one. The new OLED display will be ready for field testing "sometime early next year".

The OLED microdisplay supplier will be eMagin - this is not official but the company has said several times that it is working on an OLED upgrade to a fixed wing aircraft program, believed to be the F-35. eMagin estimates that it will start shipping samples by the end of 2018, and that initial production will begin indeed in 2019.

Note: the author of this article holds shares in eMagin

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Posted: Sep 01,2018 by Ron Mertens