Simulator Visual systems
 

Was talking to a simulator manufacturer a few weeks ago about visual systems for simulators, actually fligh training devices. There are some impressive full motion units around, but below level D simulators. These are full motion.

Interesting point he made, a simulator can be had for $500,000, modelled ln any aircraft you like, as in exact cockpit reproduction. The interesting part was to add a collimated visual system would put another $500,000 on top of that. He said the size of the high quality mirror, its manufacturing cost is the killer.

So what about using compter tecnology, we allready have curved computer screens of various sizes comming out, what about a larger version using 3D technology. Could that work?

Also is their any truth to the rumour that Boeing and Airbus charge many millions for the aircarft dataset that goes on level D simulators.

I'm not sure what sim you would get for $0.5 million. In the mid 90s, my then employer bought a sim for a Boeing widebody and the price was around $10 million for what was at the time state of the art. Yes, computer prices have come down, but I would be amazed if they had fallen that much.

Yes, manufacturers charge a huge amount for data packages - not a rumour at all.

Worth noting that it takes as much computer power to drive a good visual system as it does to model the aircraft's systems, performance, and handling.

The company I used to work for is buying a simulator from a melbourne based company, 6 deg of motion and the cockpit will be identical to the Seminole, evrything physical in the cockpit is the same. I tried one of their prototypes a few years and it was incredible, the motion felt as real as it gets and I have a lot of time in the level D 747-400 sims. The new sim will be 400k.

i think computing power is a non event these days.

The point of a collimated screen is to present an accurate representation of the outside world from any viewpoint within the sim.

Computer screens or projectors work absolutely fine, but they will display a biased picture depending on the setup. If you have ever used these types you will have witnessed the sim instructor switching the viewpoints depending if you're in the left or right hand seat.

Not sure if a continuous wrap around style LCD or LED screen would be the same but I would imagine so.

There are good number of collimated systems (Mirror and BP screen) from the mid 80s now starting to appear on the second hand market as Sims of this era are decommissioned.

A new good 180 deg Visual system would likely cost you around $500K 3 projectors, 3 IGs with their software licences and then the config and support tolls for alignment.

A 'typical' price for a Level D FFS is around $10M for something like a 737/A320... the Boeing/Airbus data package price for these is around $1M (and must be paid for EACH simulator...). The data package price for the 787 is reputed to be some $8M but includes a significant proportion of the software from the aircraft.

Although there are some reasonable lower priced devices around, there is a reason the Level D devices cost what they do and I don't see that changing any time soon.

- GY