Image courtesy of BAE Systems
BAE Systems’ Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II flight engineering simulator is up and running, the company said. Pilots can now prepare for flight trials on the U.K.’s new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier in 2018. It replaces a previous version which was first built in the 1980s.
The new simulator allows users to practice landing on the deck of the new vessel in a variety of weather conditions. They can also run scenarios on ski jump short takeoffs and vertical landings. The simulator offers 360 deg of display and comprises a cockpit moved by an electronic motion platform and a full representation of the ship’s flying control tower (FLYCO).
“The immersive experience is as near to the real thing as possible. The data will show us exactly what will happen when F-35 pilots fly to and from the Queen Elizabeth carriers,” said Peter “Wizzer” Wilson, BAE Systems’ test pilot for the F-35B variant. “The trials we can run through the simulator are far more extensive than what we will do in the actual flight trials because we can run and re-run each trial until we have all the data we need. The simulator provides greater cost efficiency for the overall program and is extremely important to the success of the first flight trials.”