The first Boeing 787-9 full-flight simulator (FFS) of Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) is ready for training operations at the Frankfurt, Germany, location. It was made in Crawley by British manufacturer L3Harris.

The new training device for the training of pilots is already the 26th full-flight simulator of the Boeing 787 model manufactured and delivered by L3Harris. The flight simulator is just under seven meters wide and measures roughly seven meters in both height and depth. With its 14 tons in weight, the new training device is no lightweight.

As one of the largest European operators of flight simulators, LAT has a great deal of experience with purchasing, installing, and maintaining simulators. With this project there was the additional and unique timing challenge since the addition of the 787 to the Lufthansa Group fleet was scheduled to take place in the spring of 2022. This is why the 787-9 FFS was manufactured in modular fashion for LAT and thus deviates from the standard.

“The manufacturer assembled only the cockpit and the simulator platform in its plant for the purposes of final inspection and acceptance. The remaining components were assembled for the very first time by the L3Harris team during installation of the simulator in Frankfurt. This included the motion and viewing system as well as the outer casing,” explains Jens Jährling, Head of Training Devices & Infrastructure (TD&I) at Lufthansa Aviation Training.

To be able to offer the training for cockpit crews as soon as possible, Lufthansa Aviation Training has brought the times allocated for testing as well as for final inspection and acceptance to a minimum. “Nothing changes, of course, when it comes to the high quality and reliability of our training equipment that our clients are accustomed to,” emphasizes Matthias Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa Aviation Training GmbH. He adds: “The teamwork with the manufacturer L3Harris meant that our own, very experienced Engineering team had a partner by its side with whom it was able to install the 787 full-flight simulator in Frankfurt and have it approved in record time and in a spirit of cooperation.”

Additionally, in the fall of 2022 a flight training device (FTD) will complement the B787 model in the LAT fleet, which is scheduled to be ready for training operations starting in October 2022. Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) is L3Harris Technologies’ very first customer regarding this new training device.