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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 3352.PDF
SIMULATION Transportable trainers chosen for US Army BY GRAHAM WARWICK IN ATLANTA T he US Army has decided that future flight simulators will have to be transportable. The Gulf War showed the need for training devices to sustain deployed forces' readiness and help them prepare for missions. The Army was to relocate a McDonnell Douglas AH-64A Apache combat mission simula tor (CMS) to the Gulf, but the war ended first. The service con cluded that it would be imprac tical to deploy any existing simulator and that transportable devices must be developed. A request for information on mobile simulators planned for early 1992 could lead to a re quest for proposals (RFP) later in the year. The first devices likely to reflect the need for mobility are the six additional Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk flight simulators the Army plans to buy from Fiscal Year 1993. Transportability will also be' built into six Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior CMS which the Army plans to start developing in FY95. The service will complete its purchase of 12 "non-transporta ble" Apache CMSs from CAE- Link, but is re-examining its training plans for the improved Longbow Apache. One option is to make the existing simulators switchable between AH-64C/D Longbow and AH-64A/B "non- Longbow" configurations. An other is build a new CMS, which could then be mobile. The Army is also considering developing a device which would be less ca pable than the CMS but more complex than the AH-64 emer gency-procedures trainer once planned. This transportable fixed-based or limited-motion device would be located where a CMS is not available. Mobility is already part of the integrated training system CAE- Link is developing for the Army's Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche. This envisages a mo tion-base CMS located at major training bases in the USA, with a transportable fixed-based CMS and lower-cost networked tac tics/combined-arms trainers at forward operating bases. Other Army plans include the upgrade of its 22 Bell UH-1 Huey flight simulators with new computers and Ada software. The National Guard is already operating a UH-1 simulator up graded by Grumman under an Ada feasibility demonstration programme. An RFP will be issued early in 1992. The Army has dropped plans to buy a simulator for the Shorts C-23 Sherpa transport aircraft, on cost grounds, and is looking at alternatives, including using the only existing Shorts 360 regional-airliner simulator, at FlightSafety International's New York LaGuardia headquarters. The service admits that signifi cant changes would be needed to simulate the C-23. • NEWS IN BRIEF SAAB ADDED FlightSafety International is to build a third Saab 340B regional-airliner flight simula tor for its own use, similar to Level C simulators already in service at FlightSafety's St Louis and San Antonio train ing centres and to a third machine supplied to Crossair in Switzerland. SPEEDY 737 Link-Miles is to supply a sec ond Boeing 737-400 flight simulator to Malaysia Airlines "to a very fast timescale". The machine, needed to relieve a training bottleneck, will have the Link-Miles Image 600PT phototextured visual system, as will the Airbus A330 simu lator sold to Malaysia. Thomson-CSF links with Link-Miles Thomson-CSF and UK sub sidiary Link-Miles have con solidated their visual-system development efforts. An early result could be joint develop ment of a high-performance photovisual for European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) and Das sault Rafale flight simulators. Thomson-CSF and Link-Miles have developed phototexture en hancements independently for their separate Visa military and Image commercial visual sys tems. Marketing has been con solidated already, with Thom son-CSF attributing some its re cent success in selling com mercial flight simulators to the fact that it is now offering Link- Miles visuals. The next enhanced with phototexture. Applications include the French air force's Dassault Mirage 2000N low-level flight simula tor; a Swiss air force Aerospa tiale Super Puma helicopter flight simulator to be delivered in 1992, the first to feature a visual system with continuous 70° vertical field of view; and French army Leclerc tank simu lators ordered in November. Link-Miles lacks a high-end visual system at the moment; it uses CAE-Link's MOD DIG in Harrier GR.5/7 simulators for the Royal Air Force and General Electric's Compu-Scene IV in Agusta A. 129 simulators for the Italian army. • step is to develop future Super Puma simulator is due for Swiss air force enhancements jointly, say officials. Link-Miles is likely to offer a jointly developed high-performance visual as part of a consortium bid for the Eurofighter EFA training-system contract. Thomson- CSF, meanwhile, would offer the same visual in its bid to build France's Rafale simulators, and as part of a drive to maximise EFA and Ra fale training equipment , aJ commonality. *j «*«. WimA* *<^.!T5?^Wi? Thomson-CSF's pre sent high-end visual system is Visa 4, now Eyring protest delays USN contract Acontract to update the visual systems on ten US Navy helicopter simulators has been delayed by a protest from an unsuccessful bidder. After the USN selected AAI Systems Management to perform the upgrades, worth potentially $45 million (Flight International, 20-26 November), Eyring lodged a protest with the US General Accounting Office, arguing that the lost-cost visual system se lected did not meet the original specification. A ruling is ex pected in January Eyring offered Evans & Suth erland's mid-range ESIG-3000 image generator. General Elec tric interpreted the USN's speci fication similarly as requiring a mid-range system and offered its PT2000. AAI won the contract with a growth version of Star Technolo gies' Graphicon 2000/PTX low- cost image generator. Eyring has asked for an "ob jective review" of whether the Graphicon 2000/STX is a "non- developmental item" as the re quest for proposals (RFP) specifies. The company also wants independent verification that Star and AAI demonstrated all the visual system features included in their bid, as required in the RFP. AAI says its visual system meets the specification. • 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25 December, 1991 - 7 January, 1992
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