Ian Sheppard/Cranwell
Data Sciences is close to securing the first airline customer for its low-cost full-motion Flight Engineering Systems Trainer (FEST), following the launch of the personal-computer-based simulator with the Royal Air Force.
FESTproject manager Neil Baker says that "detailed discussions" are being held with a UK regional airline, adding that Data Sciences, an IBM subsidiary, is hoping that that the UKCivil Aviation Authority will grant the product Level A/B training approval by January 1998.
The system is a full-motion six-degrees-of-freedom device, but costs only £400,000 ($647,000) because of its mass-market PC-game heritage, says Baker. The key elements are a simulator capsule, incorporating motion platform and cockpit display; the flight model; and notebook PC instructor station. The displays can also be recreated in a classroom environment.
Software components from UK-based Ilog help make the simulator reconfigurable, mapping the generic flight model on to the cockpit display. A different instrument-panel bezel is then used over the screen for each aircraft type.
The RAF uses the FEST at its Department of Specialist Ground Training (DSGT) at Cranwell, as a training aid on its advanced systems engineering course. DSGT director Grp Capt David Case, who, until January, worked at the UK Ministry of Defence on Eurofighter EF2000 procurement, hopes that it will help in defining new aircraft by enhancing engineering officers' awareness.
The DSGT also hopes to extend the model to supersonic aircraft and inherently unstable configurations, says Sqn Ldr Brian Mercer, officer commanding the Aerosystems Engineering Squadron, who describes the FEST as the RAF's "latest and most modern" training aid.
Source: Flight International
