Undergraduate and postgraduate Aeronautics and Astronautics students are being trained to observe the important role of aircraft design and its influence on handling of an aircraft. Most Universities set the focus in the first year of the degree on design, testing and manufacturing of an aircraft. Thanks to a (flight) simulator at hand, these students have the exclusive opportunity of flying a variety of aircraft. The different aircraft types on each simulator vary depending on customer wishes. This means, they can experience directly and «out of first hand» how major aspects of an aircraft design influence the handling qualities (known as the laboratory phase). In the last two years of their studies, the students are normally able to use the simulators once again for individual tasks and group design projects.
Universities are very keen on observing human-to-machine interaction, analyzing aeroacoustics of aircraft, but also rotorcraft and biologically inspired flying vehicles. It is clear, that nowadays students are in a much better situation when provided with a (flight) simulator. Have a look at the generic ELITE FNPT II or the FTD, which is a simulator device, that has been specifically designed and built by our engineers. They can now study, learn and work in an environment that previously would have only been made accessible by very expensive full motion (flight) simulators or by sitting in a real aircraft, thus resulting in high fuel and maintenance costs.
A further benefit for higher education institutes using a simulator is how easy our generic and reconfigurable devices can be switched between aircraft types and systems. This is a huge learning step for students who can now evaluate, observe and recognize the handling characteristics of different aircraft. It enables them to enter their study phase of planning and engineering of future system designs. These engineering research simulators are going to be a game changer for a University, college or high school that wants to be even more valued and sought for by students.
