The boom in business aircraft deliveries is fuelling a surge in flight simulator installations as training providers gear up to meet demand.

SimuFlite Training International has ordered seven new Level D simulators and begun construction of a new training centre, while continuing to upgrade its Level C machines. FlightSafety International is also expanding its business aircraft simulator fleet.

Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas-based SimuFlite has ordered Raytheon Hawker 800/800XP and Sikorsky S-76 helicopter simulators from CAE; Cessna CitationJet and Raytheon Beechjet 400A and King Air 350 simulators from NLX; and Dassault Falcon 900B/C/EX and 2000 machines from Thomson Training & Simulation. The devices will debut between late next year and early 2002. The company has four business jet simulators already on order from CAE for delivery next year.

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Six of the additional machines will be installed at SimuFlite's new training centre in the northeast USA. The location for the site will be selected by mid-January.

FlightSafety is adding Level D business jet simulators at its newest training centres. Its Atlanta, Georgia, base will become a Bombardier Learjet centre. A Learjet 45 simulator is operational, a Learjet 60 will be installed next month and a Learjet 31A is to follow in June.

Falcon 900EX and 2000 devices are being installed in the company's new D/FW centre, which will also host the first Galaxy business jet simulator under an agreement to provide training for Fort Worth-based GalaxyAerospace.

Under similar agreements, FlightSafety will provide training for the Envoy 7 business jet version of Fairchild Dornier's 728JET regional airliner and the Legacy corporate variant of Embraer's ERJ-135 regional jet.

CAE says business aircraft simulators now account for 30% of its order book, despite the fact that FlightSafety, the largest provider of business aviation training, builds its simulators in-house. "Regional and business sectors are very strong, especially business jets," says Ash Sarin, director commercial flight simulation marketing and sales.

CAE has started to develop a lower-cost flight simulator, scaled to the smaller cockpit size of business and regional jets. The Ultra Sim will feature an electric motion system and a new visual system with PC-based image generator and smaller-diameter panoramic display. A working prototype is set to be available early in 2002.

Source: Flight International