Will Deploy Sims To 19 Airports, OKC Training Center

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Wednesday it will deploy new air traffic tower simulators to 19 locations around the country to help train thousands of new air traffic controllers in an operational environment that is interactive and provides realistic scenarios.

The new simulators will be deployed over the next 18 months at the following towers: John F. Kennedy (JFK); Los Angeles (LAX); Oakland (OAK); Washington Reagan National (DCA); Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW); Atlanta (ATL); Denver (DEN); Philadelphia (PHL); Cincinnati (CVG); Cleveland (CLE); San Antonio (SAT); Memphis (MEM); Honolulu (HNL); Orlando (MCO); Charlotte (CLT); Minneapolis (MSP); Boston (BOS); and Newport News (PHF). The FAA will install an additional six simulators at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City (OKC).

"We’re making sure that the latest technology is part of the training regimen," said Bobby Sturgell, the FAA’s acting administrator. "Controlling traffic is a demanding job, and experience tells us that real-life training scenarios make a critical difference. Deploying simulators to such key locations as JFK will help us maximize our training program."

The FAA has been using tower simulators for training in Chicago, Miami, Phoenix and Ontario, CA since 2006. In late December 2007, the FAA awarded a contract to Adacel Systems, Incorporated of Orlando, FL to provide another 24 simulators. Adacel, Inc. developed the FAA’s original four prototype systems.

The Tower Simulation System (TSS) includes a large, graphic depiction of the airfield and the area around the airport and can be adjusted to depict different weather conditions and times of the day. The screen showing the airfield wraps around the student’s position to replicate windows of an actual air traffic tower.

The simulator provides synthetic voice response and voice recognition to allow the student to direct and receive responses as they would in the tower. At the same time, the voice recognition system interprets the student’s commands and translates them into actual aircraft movements depicted on the screen of the airfield layout.

The simulator system does not interact with actual air traffic control operational systems and poses no threat to service interruption. The system creates an entirely new environment that operates away from and independently of ongoing air traffic operations. It realistically replicates operations that enable training in an absolutely safe environment.

FMI: Read The FAA's TSS Fact Sheet