Leonardo continues his activity around the world, from the United States to Australia. During the Heli-Expo exhibition taking place in Atlanta from 4 to 7 March, the company announced the start of production of the world's first "Full Motion" simulator for the AW609 tiltrotor and the intention to create one also for the AW169 . Both systems will be installed at the new Training Academy based in the Leonardo plant in Philadelphia and will become operational in 2020.
Going into the details of the technology, the first simulator was developed together with CAE and was based on the CAE 3000 Series FFS model, characterized by a system that allows the cockpits of different types of Leonardo helicopters to be used by inserting or removing them from the same mobile base of the simulator. The same synergy will be the basis of the simulator for the AW169 helicopter.
The simulator to be installed on the AW609 will allow pilots to practice both normal flight conditions and emergency circumstances and will perfectly replicate the helicopter's unique flight characteristics, operating environments and real machine behavior with the possibility of using night vision goggles.
As regards the Training Academy in Philadelphia, the Italian defense company announced the enhancement of training services in the USA with the creation of a new academy, the construction of which will be completed by 2020. Leonardo will invest 65 million dollars in the new structure .
The Training Academy will take care of the training of pilots, cabin crews and maintenance technicians. In 2018, more than 10.000 students were trained by Leonardo all over the world among helicopter pilots and maintenance technicians, adopting the same approach as the Italian academy in Sesto Calende (Varese).
Areas dedicated to customers and a series of maintenance and flight training systems will also be created for the AW119, AW109, AW139, AW169, AW609 products which will allow the progress made by the students in the training phase to be checked in real time.
