ErikStenger
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ARLINGTON  Simulated flight training is about to get a lot more realistic for military pilots.
Marrying the latest technologies in high-definition video and computer-generated images and animation, L-3 Link Simulation and Training of Arlington is building a new generation of training simulators that will take real-world realism up a couple of notches.
Pilots "flying" in one of Link’s SimuSphere trainers equipped with its new HD World system  at what looks and feels like 500 mph  will be able to see everything around them, in the air and on the ground, at levels of detail and sophistication never before achieved.
The U.S. Air Force is the first customer for simulators incorporating HD World. The service recently awarded Link contracts totaling $87.7 million to integrate the technology into a new generation of F-16 flight simulators and build the first of up to 20 four-ship Mission Training Center systems.
How good are the visuals? Think Star Wars.
As retired Navy Cmdr. Bill Fitzpatrick "flies" over, around and through the Swiss Alps, zooming into and out of narrow canyons at seemingly treetop height, it harkens back to Luke Skywalker’s attack on the Death Star.
Link got pilots’ seal of approval when they set up the demonstration unit at a trade show in Orlando, Fla., in January.
"We thought the system was good," said John Schaefer, manager of training solutions and products for the Arlington-based company. "The pilots, they were coming back four and five times."
Link’s new simulation systems incorporate the latest developments in high-definition video, off-the-shelf digital imaging technology developed for animation and gaming, and a "physics-based environment generator" that allows creation of up to 30,000 interactive images in a single simulation.
The simulation is driven by dozens of networked PC-type computers made from readily available commercial components, such as Intel dual core processors and $400 graphics cards, installed in industrial quality cases with greater cooling capacity.
The end result is video imaging that is of 20-40 visual acuity, only a little less than perfect eyesight. Previous generations of simulators were no better than 20-80. Schaefer says the only thing preventing even better images is that existing projectors cannot yet generate 20-20 images at jet aircraft speeds.
"A lot of our competition, you can see a piece of that technology, but they can’t deliver the whole package," Schaefer said.
With the new technology, pilots in the simulator can spot tiny, potential targets many miles away and see details they previously couldn’t. It makes simulator training all that more realistic and useful, much more like real flight time, but at a fraction of the cost to the military.
With a flip of the switch, the same scenes are shown at night with no apparent detail. But a pilot can don night-vision goggles and again see detailed, real-time moving images.
Military special operations forces that do much of their work at night also saw the system in Orlando. "They said this was 'better than anything we’ve got,’ " Schaefer said. "That was a pretty good compliment for us."
The company works with and also competes against the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors. On the Air Force contract, it’s teamed with Boeing.
Link, whose founder, Edward Link, developed the first rudimentary aircraft flight simulator in 1929, spent about four years and $15 million of its own funds to develop its latest simulation technologies and build the pre-production model housed in its Arlington plant to demonstrate its capabilities.
Link has previously delivered 102 of its SimuSphere cockpit simulators to the Air Force and other customers. The SimuSphere is a training system used for F-16, F-22 and F/A-18 pilots.
The next-generation F-16 simulator system will also be easily adaptable to the F-22 and F/A-18, and Link officials say the technology, with its capability to generate interactive air and ground images, will be adaptable to their Army helicopter and ground vehicle simulation systems as well.
"We talk to customers and they say, 'Can you do this and this?’ " Schaefer said. "It’s kind of exploding."
[Special-ops forces] said this was 'better than anything we’ve got.’ That was a pretty good compliment."
John Schaefer,
manager of training solutions and products for Link Simulation and Training
.