CAE delivers first U.S. Army UH-72A flight simulator to Ft. Rucker

ORLANDO, Fla., 2 Dec. 2014. The U.S. Army has accepted for training the first UH-72A flight training device (FTD) from CAE to be located at the U.S. Army's Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. This news was announced today at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Fla.

Under subcontract to Airbus Defense & Space, CAE designed and manufactured the UH-72A FTD, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Level 6-capable FTD with an aircraft-specific cockpit having the fidelity and performance of a full-flight simulator without the motion, officials say. It is the first UH-72A Lakota flight simulator to be located at Ft. Rucker, considered to be the home of U.S. Army aviation.

"This high-quality flight training device was delivered and operational at lightning speed," says Dale Alldredge, UH-72A acquisition management analyst, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Capability Management - Lift. "CAE has delivered a training device that will serve new helicopter flight students and instructor pilots much more than we originally anticipated."

The CAE-built UH-72A FTD features a motion/vibration seat and a wide 200-degree by 70-degree field-of-view display system driven by the next-generation CAE Medallion-6000 image generator to immerse pilots in a high-fidelity synthetic training environment. The UH-72A FTD for the U.S. Army has also been fielded with the CAE-developed Common Database (CDB), enhancing the Army's ability to leverage existing U.S. Government-owned databases to support helicopter training requirements.

"We are honored to support the Army's UH-72A Lakota flight training that will take place at Ft. Rucker, and particularly pleased we were able to deliver early on an aggressive delivery schedule," notes Ray Duquette, president and general manager, CAE USA. "From contract award to acceptance into service, we delivered this simulator in less than six months and almost three months ahead of schedule. This will help the Army meet a critical training need, and allow the Army to efficiently and cost-effectively begin balancing live and synthetic training for its new UH-72A primary helicopter trainer."

CAE is currently building a second UH-72A FTD for the U.S. Army, which will be delivered to Ft. Rucker, Alabama during the summer of 2015.

CAE provides comprehensive training solutions based on world-leading simulation technology and integrated training services. CAE has the largest installed base of civil and military flight simulators, supported by a range of after-sales services, and has been serving the needs of its customers for nearly 70 years, officials say. Its broad training services network offers civil aviation, military, and helicopter training services in 67 locations worldwide and trains more than 120,000 civil and military crewmembers annually.