The USS Trayer, the centerpiece of Battle Station 21, “floats” dockside
(above left). A cockpit trainer is deployed — virtually, that is — during an
F-35 training excercise (above). An Air Force pilot seems to fly high in the
sky while training on an F-22 simulator (previous spread, left). Four Army
soldiers get up close with the enemy on the EST 2000, an Army Engage-
ment Skills Trainer (previous spread, right).
tell you. Using organ parts and com- introducing — white-knuckle failure putting together our F-15E Mission
pressed air, Link single-handedly scenarios to keep their pupils sharp. Training Center,” says Mark Adduc-
jump-started the commercial simula- To get those reactions in a ground- chio, chief engineer for the simulator
tor business in 1928, creating a bob- bound pilot, simulator developers systems group within the 677th Aero-
bing-and-weaving cockpit mockup incorporate a high degree of accuracy nautical Systems Group at Wright-
that gave hundreds of thousands of and realism into the devices. In the Patterson AFB, Ohio. “It incorporates
pilot trainees a rudimentary fl ying ex- cockpit, every switch and display a lot of the latest technology. We’re
perience in the ’30s and ’40s. exactly replicates its real-life counter- about to go out to bid with a new F-16
The company Link founded still part. Wraparound projection screens training center as well, and the re-
is in the simulation business, but displaying terrain generated from quirements for that are going to stress
current trainers bear little resem- actual satellite photos ratchet the re- the contractors out a bit as well.”
blance to those early models. To- alism up another notch. The addition Even a year or two can mean a
day’s fl ight simulators, or sims, are of full motion in three axes completes huge difference in a simulator’s so-
computer-controlled full-motion the “you are there” experience. phistication, Adducchio notes. “The
immersive environments that give F-22 sim is very advanced, but it’s
pilots an experience that can be High-tech training been out for about four years now,
unnervingly realistic. There are The pace of technological advance- and you know how fast computer
few routine missions in a fl ight ment means the newer the simulator, technology is changing these days.”
simulator, as instructors/operators the more powerful and realistic it The art of aviation simulation
introduce — some might say enjoy is. “We’re just now in the process of might have reached its pinnacle — at
PHOTOS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, LEFT, USAF; RIGHT, DOUG SCHAUB, U.S. ARMY; THIS S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 M I L I T A R Y O F F I C E R 1 0 9
PAGE, LEFT, USN; RIGHT, COURTESY LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP.
SSept_Simulators.indd
109ept_Simulators.indd 109 88/4/08 8:42:16 PM/4/08 8:42:16 PM
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