Australia’s Ryan Aerospace launched its Helimod Mark III Plus helicopter simulator on Monday at the Interservice Industry Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida. The new device is similar to the Helimod Mark III VR (virtual reality) model already in use with customers, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and Australian Navy, but adds full active control loading in the cyclic, collective, and pedals controls. Like the standard Helimod Mark III, the cyclic and collective controls are interchangeable between aircraft type.
Company managing director Chris Ryan said the new model “provides an even greater level of realism and configurability but in a cost-effective way” and gives customers and users “more control over how the helicopter controls feel and reacts, offering greater realism but at a much more appealing price-point. The control loading system is of high quality and comes with all of the software and hardware that allows you to tweak a variety of parameters until such time the desired 'control feel' is achieved.”
A number of partners contributed to the Mark III Plus, including SASimulations, which integrated Apache and Black Hawk flight models, and Bohmia Interactive, for the VBS Blue image generator. Varjo provided the head-mounted display that delivers 60 pixels per degree—the equivalent of 20/20 vision. Electric D-Box actuators were integrated into the device to provide motion and vibration cues.