Story ID: 505
Helisim Building $40 Million Texas Training Center
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Airbus Helicopters Site Selected.
Word Count: 409
Airbus Helicopters-Thales helicopter training joint venture Helisim and its member companies are building a new 23,000-sq-ft, $40 million pilot and maintenance crew training center on the Airbus Helicopters Inc. campus at Grand Prairie, Texas, it announced on Tuesday at Heli-Expo 2018. Helisim will develop and operate the center, which will house the first Airbus H145 and H175 level-D simulators in North America.

The H145 simulator is scheduled for installation first and construction of the center will begin later this year. Its Reality H simulators will be built by Thales. Plans call for an H160 simulator to be added at a future date, once that model is certified and production is under way.

According to Helisim, the center will incorporate Airbus Helicopters’ existing training facilities at Grand Prairie, including its H125/AS350 full-flight simulator and H135/H145 flight-training device. The new center is expected to accommodate “several thousand” students annually, including approximately 1,000 pilots for introductory and recurrent training.  

“This is the next step of customer experience for us. When they arrive in Grand Prairie not only will they have their aircraft to pick up, we will have level-D simulation capability. This is just the first step. With this expansion, we will be able to support our customers' needs for helicopter training in one location,” said Christopher Emerson, president of Airbus Helicopters Inc. and head of the North America region. “Expanding our capabilities with H145 and H175 level-D simulators will allow customers to optimize their training programs and benefit from the expertise that we can provide onsite at our headquarters in the U.S.”

 “When we first embarked on this partnership with Airbus, our primary goal was to ensure the next generation of helicopter pilots worked in an industry with the same safety record as those in the fixed-wing market,” said Benoit Plantier, Thales' vice president of training and simulation. “The quality and level of training Helisim offers to pilots in Europe has gone a long way to accomplish that goal. We are proud to continue this legacy in North America.”

“The opening of this new facility near Dallas represents a major international expansion of Helisim,” said Helisim CEO Christian Cochini. “Our 18 years of experience in simulation training for Airbus Helicopters’ wide range of aircraft, representing nearly 200,000 simulated flight hours, combined with Airbus Helicopters Inc.'s expertise will allow us to offer safe and efficient training solutions for North American customers.”