AD Technical Blog: The FV-0361 HD External Aerospace Camera Housing
The housing for the AD Aerospace FV-0361 High-Definition External Aerospace Camera consists of a front and rear cylindrical casing. These casings are secured together using a M25 x 1.0 screw thread to a strict tolerance of 6g. The front casing is of a spherical shape for aerodynamics. The latest in CNC machining techniques and cutter strategies are used to manufacture the housing. A surface finish of um Ra 1.6 is required to achieve a positive hermetic seal with a series of Nitrile O-rings.
The material used in the manufacture of the FV-0361 housing is Titanium Alloy 6AL-4V Grade 5. This material was carefully selected for its light weight, high strength, and corrosion resistant properties. The cameras weight when fully assembled is just 355g.
The front viewing window is manufactured from Sapphire Glass and is extremely scratch resistant and resilient to sand blasting that it could be subjected to in high winds. The glass is also heated locally using an internal heating element to prevent any external icing.
In addition to the DO-160G tests, a sustained acceleration test to ISO 2669 was performed up to 7.5G in all axes.
Images of the housing of the FV-0361 HD External Aerospace Camera are shown below:
AD Aerospace’s FV-0361 colour compact external aerospace camera features high frame rate, HD resolution, and near-zero latency. The camera is suited for ground manoeuvring, in-flight entertainment, winch monitoring, and many other airborne applications.
Designed for external aircraft use up to 50,000ft, the unit is impervious to internal condensation “fogging” as well as external icing, due to an internally controlled heater localised to the optical surface.
The optics of the camera are protected with a sapphire glass window which is scratch resistant, and the housing of the camera is manufactured from Titanium alloy. The design of the camera is aerodynamically shaped and has no “edges” to allow water droplet removal as the aircraft moves in the air stream. The window is heated with an internally fitted heater, which allows for the viewing oculus to be automatically de-misted and de-iced at low temperatures.
For ease of installation, the unit has a mark identifying vertical orientation, and allows a minimum of 2.5° of adjustment in any orientation, in case of a slightly mis-aligned mounting arrangement.
To find out more about our cameras, visit https://ad-aero.com/products/