SIMULATORS
PANIC
An aircraft evacuation test program is proving
contentious in the USA because of pressure from
consumer groups to update industry standards
ver the course of 12 days last
November the US Federal
Aviation Authority carried out a
series of evacuation tests at its
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute research facility in
Oklahoma City.
The mock evacuations involved a total of 720
volunteers from the local region. The tests were
conducted inside the Flexible Aircraft Cabin Evacuation
Simulator (FlexSim), the Institute’s in-house emergency
evacuation simulator.
The purpose of the test program, which was
mandated by the US Congress as part of a Federal
Aviation Authority (FAA) bill, was to better understand
the relationship between seat width, pitch and evacuation
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM // MARCH 83
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