October 2005
 

Flight training in Cyberspace

RDE supplies new Tornado visualization simulator for Holloman Air Force Base

 
Germany's Federal Agency for Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) has just dispatched a new Tornado visualization simulator to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico in the United States. In 2003, BWB awarded ARGE Sichtsystem Tornado, a joint venture of Rheinmetall Defence Electronics GmbH (RDE/Bremen) and CAE Elektronik GmbH of Stolberg, a contract to design, develop and integrate a new external visualization simulation system for the existing Tornado flight simulator at Holloman. The German Air Force trains its Tornado flight officers and weapon system officers at this base.
 

Flight training in Cyberspace – and more realistic than ever: the German Air Force uses the new Tornado visualization simulator to train its flight officers and weapon system officers at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

 
Retrofitted with new visualization simulation technology, the modified simulator is intended to produce a level of realism never before achieved, enabling pilots to carry out new training exercises and flight manoeuvres. These include flight navigation and the coordination between crewmembers, operations which lend themselves ideally to simulation.

Best of all, however, the simulator permits manoeuvres and exercises too dangerous or expensive to be performed in actual aircraft to be carried out as often as necessary. Moreover, emergency situations such as an engine fire or complicated navigation procedures following a system failure can be simulated under day, night and poor weather conditions. The retrofitting of the first Tornado simulator represents a milestone in flight simulation technology, bringing a whole new quality to this efficient, highly effective form of pilot training.

First delivered to the German Air Force, the innovative Avior laser projection system produces a superb depiction of the view from the cockpit. The advantages of Avior include unlimited sharpness of depth, the most extensive colour range of any projection system currently on the market, as well as extremely realistic night vision projection.

The Bremen-based firm also made the spherical projection surface – usually known as the dome – which measures 7.65 metres in diameter. The image, i.e. the external view, is projected onto the inner wall of the dome. The 13 laser projectors, with openings no bigger than a fingertip, are arrayed around the dome; together they generate a horizontal field of view of 300 degrees and a 120-degree vertical field of view.

Finally, because the system's depiction of the external view fills the entire field of vision, and the eye is responsible for some 80% of human spatial perception, there is really no need for expensive hydraulic equipment for simulating movement – the projected images alone are nearly enough to make a pilot forget that he is still on the ground.