Simulation component manufacturer Brunner Elektronik won a contract to provide its NovaSim MR (mixed-reality) full-motion simulator to Zürich, Switzerland-based Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT). The NovaSim MR is a lightweight and compact flight simulation training device that uses virtual virtual reality to fill in details of the simulated aircraft and outside surroundings.
The NovaSim MR device for LAT replicates the twin-engine Diamond DA42 and is equipped with FlightSafety International’s Mixed Reality Flight device integrating its Vital 1150 level-D image generator. While wearing a Varjo XR-3 MR headset, the pilot interacts with real cockpit avionics and controls. The MR technology seamlessly merges the real cockpit and the virtual 360-degree outside view in the headset to give the pilot full immersion, with no limits on the field of view as is normal with traditional simulators.
The lower cost of MR simulators will lead to more affordable training for fixed- and rotary-wing pilots, especially for smaller flight schools, according to Brunner. And its high-resolution visual and motion qualities create a more realistic learning experience for the student, potentially accomplishing training goals in fewer training hours.
Demo Flight
At last year’s Heli-Expo in Anaheim, California, FlightSafety and Brunner demonstrated the NovaSim MR simulator integrated with FlightSafety’s Mixed Reality Flight at the FlightSafety exhibit, configured as an Airbus EC145 helicopter, and I had the opportunity to fly it. Unlike low-cost desktop simulators with limited capabilities, the NovaSim MR device is far more realistic. Its additional realism is particularly desirable in helicopter training where flight training devices and other less expensive trainers are of limited value.
This new MR trainer looked ungainly, the pilot seat and a set of helicopter controls nesting on top of the four-foot-high Brunner 6DOF motion platform. A semblance of an instrument panel was installed in front of the seat and a large monitor stood a few feet in front of that.
I accepted an invitation to fly it and climbed on. A member of the tech team handed me the MR headset, which I put on and then saw the full cockpit and helicopter nose and the view of a large city in FlightSafety Vital 1150 high resolution.
I have flown the real EC145 for a few hours, and the cyclic and collective felt realistic to me, as if they had come from a real aircraft. Realistic control loading of pilot controls are also a Brunner specialty. The tech turned everything on, and I felt the hum of an EC145 sitting on the ground in flat pitch, the rotor disc pulsating in front of me in the VR scenario. My host explained that the simulated rooftop heliport we were on was in Rio de Janeiro. I could see the Christo Redentor statue and the blue water of the harbor.
I raised the collective, picked up to a hover, and immediately recognized the solid, stable feel of the EC145. Edging it forward I flew around downtown, watching the accurately replicated buildings including rooftop helipads and the dense urban clutter this area is known for.
My seat moved in sync with the flight, powered by the fully electric motion system. It felt as near to a real EC145 as I had ever experienced in a simulator.
I descended into a nearby airfield, hovered in place, then moved the virtual helicopter around, doing pedal turns, taxiing, and a couple of quickstops. Then I took off, flew around the pattern, and asked the engineer to fail the engines. I did a passable autorotation to the ramp, then did a few more. I wanted to stay on this little trainer all day, enjoying the experience of flying a helicopter I had really liked.
Back at the rooftop heliport, I had to take a minute to collect my thoughts. This had been a near level-D simulation experience, all of it from this unassuming little device.
NovaSim MR Software
Brunner CEO Roger Klingler was at Heli-Expo hosting the NovaSim MR. He explained that the EC145 I flew combined Brunner’s six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) motion base with its EC145 flight controls and pilot seat. Instead of using a set of screens for the visuals, which naturally limits the field of view, FlightSafety’s Mixed Reality Flight software integrates with the Varjo XR-1 headset to provide a mixed reality cockpit and an unlimited field-of-view visual model of the virtual world outside.
Besides the Mixed Reality Software, another essential component of any such device is the aerodynamic flight model software that the simulator runs on, which creates the motion responses to flight control inputs. FlightSafety’s Mixed Reality Flight integrates with both its own level-D host, or in this case Laminar Research’s X-Plane simulation software as flight model Host, running an aero model of the EC145.
Having worked for FlightSafety and being familiar with its aero model development process, I was impressed with the quality of NovaSim’s modeling and that a relatively small team at Brunner, together with FlightSafety, had developed it.
This type of training could bring great benefits to users like the Air Force that could use the Textron T-6A aero model and cockpit to expose new pilots to the airplane. They would learn start and shutdown procedures, including malfunctions, then practice taxiing followed by takeoffs and landings or even formation flying. By the time they stepped into the real airplane with their instructor, the students should be ready to begin learning flight maneuvers leading to completion of their primary training.
At the training center, several trainers would be placed in a room and students could be tutored by one instructor, dramatically increasing instructor productivity and allowing more of them to focus on flying instead of ground training.
The Air Force Training Command could be able to reduce the flight time required for each student pilot by as much as 20 percent, and total program calendar time by as much as 40 percent. The Navy has already adopted Mixed Reality Flight and integrated it into its Avenger pilot training program to speed proficiency and expand the syllabus.
While the Air Force, Navy, and potentially the Army primary flight-training programs could benefit greatly from the use of the FlightSafety and Brunner trainers, their applications within the civil sector seem nearly limitless. Providing the same kind of efficiencies to ab initio pilot-training programs could deliver similar reductions, both in calendar time and cost. As the pilot shortage heats up again post-pandemic, these efficiencies could produce more pilots faster and at less expense.
Dozens of key managers from para-public agencies, air medical companies, and others flew the NovaSim MR EC145 at Heli-Expo, according to Klingler. Their almost unanimous response: “How can we acquire this trainer for our own programs?” They saw it as a powerful supplemental tool to their simulator training programs, providing an inexpensive and flexible platform for interim specialized training modules.
FlightSafety and Brunner came away from Heli-Expo with a backlog of potential training applications. Given the focus on the inadvertent flight into IMC (IIMC) issue from the high-profile Kobe Bryant accident, applying the NovaSim MR to a short focused IIMC review could result in a targeted training process that could funnel more pilots through a supplemental class at an affordable price. The trainer could be set up almost anywhere, needing just one room and a 110-volt wall outlet.
The idea of replicating what the Air Force plans for its primary training program within civilian programs offers plenty of opportunities to reduce expensive airplane and instructor hours with a NovaSim MR. Even more efficiency could be gained by grouping several simulators together under the tutelage of one instructor.
These ideas are all still in various stages of planning and probably would have gained earlier momentum had it not been for the complications from the pandemic. The pilots and managers that flew the NovaSim MR at Heli-Expo no doubt will be as much in need of its benefits as they were in early 2020. “We’re looking forward to a near-term bright future for the NovaSim MR product,” said Klingler.