Flight Simulation in Academia HELIFLIGHT in its First Year of Operation

Abstract

The challenges of helicopter simulation are being tackled across a broad front as technology is developed to meet the needs of Industry. Traditionally the most powerful driver has been the training community and this is likely to continue for some time as simulation technology advances at increasing pace, raising fidelity standards. The development of PC-based simulation technologies is providing a significant spur in this development and lowering the cost, making complete simulation systems of reasonably high fidelity available to smaller organisations. This paper describes the first year of operation with such a system at the University of Liverpool – HELIFLIGHT - developed by the Motionbase plc/ART Inc. partnership. With its full motion, wide field-of-view visuals, programmable force feel system and the comprehensive FLIGHTLAB modelling environment, we describe the system as high fidelity and the first year of utilisation has shown that such a facility is fit for extensive use in a variety of handling qualities and pilot-vehicle technology research and teaching. From a year of many highlights, the EU-funded programme to develop handling qualities for a civil tilt rotor aircraft is selected to demonstrate the capability of the HELIFLIGHT system.