Indra, iAlitude develop hypoxia flight trainer for Spanish AF

Indra and iAltitude have successfully completed the development of a hypoxia flight trainer that is already installed in the Aviation Medicine Training Center of the Spanish Air Force (AF) in Madrid and is currently being used to train and provide greater endurance capacity in extreme scenarios to Spanish military pilots.

This system prepares them to detect intime the effects of hypoxia, a state that can lead to loss of consciousness,while also improving their capacity and endurance, by providing them with animportant competitive advantage in combat.

The Flight Trainer-ControlledNormobaric Hypoxia (EV-HNC) consists of a C101 jet trainer – the same one usedby Spanish pilots in their initial training, before taking the controls of anF18 or a Eurofighter – and iAltitude normobaric hypoxia equipment, whichregulates the concentration of oxygen received by pilots through their masks.

It is one of the few systems availableon the market that combines both types of training, which until now werecarried out separately.

It is also one of the few thatincorporates more advanced functionalities to monitor the physical andcognitive response of the trainee pilot in real time while carrying out asimulated mission. It measures any change in the physiological variables or thespeed of reaction to stimuli with precision.

Thanks to this system, the AviationMedicine Training Center will be able to design more effective training plansand reinforce the skills, abilities and safety of the pilots.

It will also be able to measure andmanage the conditions of all pilots passing through the center in a centralizedand unified manner. In this way, the center will prepare them to face a riskthat, although it only occurs in exceptional cases, is critical for safety.

Until now, hypoxia training was carriedout mainly in hypobaric chambers or in normobaric systems in which pilots couldperform some exercises to detect the loss of sensory abilities, but withoutbeing linked to flight tasks.