FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1985
1985 - 0813.PDF
GR.5 simulator spec revealed LONDON The Royal Air Force is in the advanced stages of formu lating its requirements for a Harrier GR.5 simulator. It says that the visual system specification, contained in Air Staff Requirement 632, will be one of the most demanding ever made for a UK military simulator. At present only one simu lator is needed. This will be based at Gutersloh, West Germany, where the GR.5 fleet will be located. A second machine will, however, be required if GR.5s are ordered for the UK-based RAF. This would be based at Wittering. The GR.5 simulator train ing requirement is unique, since only single-seat aircraft are expected to be ordered. The GR.5 will be flown on offensive low-level close- support missions, in daylight and at night, and the simu lator must provide full mission training for both roles. It will be used for conversion and continuation training, but not for basic V/Stol practice, for which the *IAF will use its T.4 Harriers. Specification of the simu lator is largely driven by the major improvements in visual system technology over the last few years. This means that visuals for the new machine are likely to be a good deal more advanced than those currently in service on Harrier simulators in the US and UK, and could set new performance standards in simulation used for low level training. For this reason alone the GR.5 competition is likely to be closely fought. The RAF's aim is to make the best use of the technology while providing a "cost effec tive" solution. A low cost visual system is out of the question, although several trade-offs have been identi fied that will reduce costs. One area in which there will be no trade-off, however, is in the field of view (FOV) requirement. Vertical FOV will extend from the cockpit sill almost to the vertical, the horizontal FOV reaching "slightly beyond the beam", to around 200°. FLIGHT International, 23 March 1985 Several new ways of achiev ing this are being studied, in particular through the use of visual systems that, like CAE's fibre optics helmet- mounted display, are slaved to eye or head movements. Superimposition of a slewable target over a computer gener ated background is not discounted, although the problems met by the US Marine Corps with the use of this technique on its AV-8B simulator are noted. The data base for the GR.5 simulator will be taken from an approximately 10,000-mile area of Nato's central Euro pean front. Sufficient detail will be incorporated to correlate with the cockpit moving map display, although towns such as Gutersloh will be drawn from a generic data base. Hills and other features will be modelled to a first order of approximation, with particular regard to the GR.5 need for realism in the verti cal plane. Database informa tion will be supplied by the UK Defence Mapping Agency. If a UK simulator was ordered, the Gutersloh-based machine would be used for recurrent-only training, conversion training being carried out at Wittering OCU. The actual training regime has not been revealed, but one important area is in practising electronic warfare techniques that cannot be carried out during peacetime in the real aircraft. Planned in-service data for the new simulator is ideally January 1988, although there is some leeway allowed in the programme for technical advances during the formu lation of bids. The RAF expects to issue its specifica tion this summer, with a contract award at the end of the year. RAF to order Tornado visuals? LONDON The question of a visual system for the RAF's Tornado GR.l and F2 simulators remains open. While around 80 per cent of the training task can currently be carried out in the simulator it is still possible that visuals, which were optioned in the original requirement, may be ordered. The GR.l need is the more complex owing to the low- level mission. The F.2 air defence requirement is simpler, so visuals for this simulator might be ordered first—if the price is right. Tepigen is a raster-type system suitable for up to eight channels. 256 levels of texture are available, and up to 8,000 surfaces can be displayed. SIMULATION Marconi, CAE team on simulators LEICESTER ~ Marconi and CAE are team ing to provide an answer to the RAF's requirement for a Harrier GR.5 simulator (see accompanying story). CAE will supply its fibre optic helmet-mounted display, Marconi the light valve projector and Tepigen the image generator. A formal agreement has yet to be signed, but it is expected that Marconi would be the prime contractor. Marconi has been devel oping Tepigen since the early 1970s, one of the first applica tions being for target image generation for air defence gunnery training, in which a small, high resolution monitor is placed in front of the gunsight to simulate the target. A visual system for ship simulation came next, Marconi teaming with Racal to offer a complete simulation package. Efforts to develop a visual system responsive enough for aircraft simulators have accel erated over the last two years. Marconi now claims to have overcome development prob lems and says it is ready to supply production systems. The company has come late to the field of aircraft simu lation, but notes that it was one of the first visual system manufacturers to introduce texture, which was considered essential for realistic ship simulation and for low level flight. A useful feature of Tepigen is the ability to record up to nine separate tracks on one database, so that "live" and recorded visuals can be mixed. Each track is replayable from any required viewpoint. A carrier deck landing can, for example, be subsequently viewed from anywhere outside the aircraft, so that the pilot can actually watch his own landing, if necessary from another aircraft, which itself can be recorded and added to the next replay. Another advantage claimed for Tepigen is its modularity, 15
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
