US Air Force Selects Ryan Aerospace

Ryan Aerospace (Australia) has been awarded a series of contracts to supply nearly 300 jet fighter and helicopter training simulators to the US Air Force as part of the new program known as Pilot Training Transformation or PTT.

In recent years, the US Air Force has suffered not only from a shortage of pilots, but also a shortage of flight instructors who can deliver one-on-one training to the students. Further, it has proven cost prohibitive to procure more traditional simulators because of the extremely high cost. The government’s Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) were tasked with looking to industry to find a better way to train pilots and Ryan Aerospace as a partner with Vertex Solution, LLC were one of the many companies that made a submission to the government. Other partners supporting the project include Precision Flight Controls, D-Box and Brunner Elektronik.

Ryan Aerospace developed a modular and reconfigurable flight training simulator that can be modified to represent a number of different fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. Coupled with a learning management system, the simulators allow a change of instruction from a "teacher- centered" model to more of a "learner-centered" training model. In other words, students (with the help of a virtual instructor) can virtually teach themselves many of the desired learning outcomes. The system is supported by an after-action review software package that automatically assesses, grades and logs the student’s performance.

Major General Wills, 19th Air Force Commander has said “It’s not because the VR (virtual reality) puts magic in your head, it’s because the student has put hours and hours of practice into a very realistic training situation. It’s not that we want to cut those hours, but if I can have you solo by ride four (as much as 10 rides sooner than normal) imagine what I can you do between rides four and 44."

Around 180 of the systems have already been delivered and installed ahead of schedule and the US Air Force Aviators have commenced training. It is expected that the final simulators will be delivered and installed in early 2022.

Ryan Aerospace products can be seen at I/ITSEC in Orlando, USA, from November 29 – December 3.