SIMULATORS & TRAINING
No matter how good
any company is
within the market,
you need that
additional layer of
pilot context when
developing these
kinds of systems
3 // TRU’s Level D full
flight simulator has
dual motion systems to
provide greater realism
during simulations
80 MARCH \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
less cost and space. The leap in technology is expected
soon. Hutton says, “Some of the fourth and fifth
generation fighters are supplied with helmets which are
effectively projection systems, producing an operational
picture during a real flight. It’s a short step for one of the
OEM integrators to develop software that will integrate
the helmet into our seat technology.
“The future military fast jet simulator might be
where a pilot brings their helmet, plugs it into our seat
and is in a fully immersive training environment. No one
has done this yet. You’ve got both the seat and helmet
developed and it’s a case of integrating them.”
Surprisingly, the present F-35 simulator trainer is a
fixed seat with screens in front which is decades old in
terms of simulation technology. It’s very easy to give
future F-35 pilots a fully immersive training environment
at very little cost using some of the personal kit they
already have. Hutton says, “It’s important that the
military wakes up to this approach because aircraft, like
the F-35, have no two-seat trainers. When a pilot climbs
into the aircraft for the first time, they are on their own,
so the quality of the synthetic training they have had
prior to this becomes even more critical.” \\
This is a technique known as g-cueing
and for pilots it is the closest effect
achievable to real flight. Hutton says,
“The advantage is that it can be
accomplished with nothing more than an
ejection seat and some boxes mounted
behind the seat structure. It’s a very
compact training environment.
“This can be inserted into a normal
military full-motion simulator to add the
full wrap-around visual environment or
you put on a virtual reality helmet and
the seat will still provide the motion
cueing via the helmet.”
The potential benefits of the last
set-up mean, due to the compactness of
the seat, you could have six of these next
to each other with pilots from the same
unit flying together in a virtual world.
Seated opposite them could be an
opposing force of six pilots. All would be
wearing VR helmets and would gain the
same benefits of a six-dot simulator at far
maneuvers. If you put them in a simulator
similar to that used for a commercial
pilot, you can simulate the onset of
g-force, but it can’t really replicate the
environment a military pilot operates in,”
says Hutton.
For a military pilot, the only way of
simulating a realistic sustained g-force is
to spin them in a centrifuge. Although it’s
very good for physiological effects, it’s not
good for operational training. Engineers
at Cranfield have developed an innovative
system capable of fooling the pilot’s brain
into experiencing g-force. Hutton says,
“We do this by starting with a standard
replica ejection seat, inserting high
fidelity actuators, pressure sensors under
the seat cushion and on the back and
then we move the seat up and down a few
centimeters so that the pilot’s eye line will
alter slightly to give them a sense of
movement. The seat harnesses compress
the spine to simulate the onset of g-force
and the G-suit inflates and deflates.
“All of this is closely aligned with the
simulator movement of the aircraft and
coordinated with the pilot’s input. It
quickly confuses the brain into thinking
it is feeling g-force and once you have
confused the brain you can sustain the
forces for longer.”
“The future military fast jet simulator might be
where a pilot brings their helmet, plugs it into our
seat and is in a fully immersive training environment”
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM