GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Training site is boost for efforts to develop Farnborough as a major business aviation base
FlightSafety International is to establish a business aircraft training centre at TAG Aviation's facility at Farnborough Airport, south-west of London, UK. The centre is scheduled to be operational next year, equipped with flight simulators, computer-based classrooms and interactive pilot briefing rooms.
The mix of simulators to be installed at Farnborough has yet to be decided. FlightSafety has a range of business and regional aircraft simulators at its Paris Le Bourget training centre and has an Embraer ERJ-135/145 regional jet simulator at Manchester Airport in the UK.
The announcement is a boost for TAG's five-year plan to develop Farnborough into a major European business aviation centre. The company finalised its 99-year lease on the former military airfield in January. TAG has already added hangar and office space, and construction of a new executive terminal and office complex begins later this year.
In the USA, meanwhile, FlightSafety continues to roll out training programmes for new business and regional aircraft types. The first two simulators for the Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet are in service in Atlanta, Georgia, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and a third will join the fleet in June at the company's Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, training centre.
The three Level D machines were produced by FlightSafety, which is building the company's first simulators for three new business-jet types: the Cessna Citation Sovereign, Dassault Falcon 900EX with EASy cockpit, and Gulfstream G550. They will be installed in the third quarter in Wichita, Kansas; Teterboro, New Jersey; and Savannah, Georgia. Like all FlightSafety's new simulators, they will be equipped with the company's own Vital-9 visual system.
Source: Flight International