UK SOFTWARE Company Vega has been awarded a £1 million ($1.55 million) contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the development of a computerised air- craft-training system (CATS) for the Royal Navy.
The Welwyn Garden City, UK-based firm will deliver 63 computer workstations and associated software in early 1997, for installation at the RN's Air Engineering School in Lee-On-Solent. The system will be used to provide technicians with initial training before they specialise on the EH Industries EH101 or Westland Lynx helicopters, or the British Aerospace Sea Harrier.
The use of the CATS means that a smaller proportion of training is carried out using real aircraft, with multi-media graphics on high-performance personal computers being used in their place. Earlier this year, Vega delivered a maintenance trainer, which specifically emulates the RN's F/A2 Sea Harrier.
Meanwhile, Vega and UK software company Ilog have been selected by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to develop a runway simulation to study the capacities of airports under various traffic loads and weather conditions. Vega will construct the simulation using Ilog's Solver and Schedule software packages.
Source: Flight International
