Why Simulator Authenticity Matters -- Fain Simulation Systems Duplicates the Real Feel of the F-16

The annual conference commonly known as "ITSEC" has been through a few official name changes since its debut in 1966, when it started as the Naval Training Device Center/Industry Conference. The event brings together simulation developers with a host of military and, increasingly, civilian stakeholders to demonstrate and discuss the state of the art is simulators for training.

Now officially known as I/ITSEC, the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, the event is held late in the calendar year. Among the exhibitors at the 2010 event in Orlando was Fain Simulation Systems, a division of Fain Models which entered the simulation industry to produce high quality, reliable, well-supported simulated hardware for commercial and military flight simulators at a fair price.

The company claims the ability and knowledge to develop, design, and create almost any simulated ejection seat or cockpit hardware with the look, function, and feel of the real thing.

ANN CEO and Editor-in-Chief Jim Campbell tried out an F-16 cockpit simulator with a pilot seat which offers authentic motion cues for various aircraft systems and maneuvers, and spoke with Matthew Sibley, Systems Integrator for Fain Models and Simulation, about this particular sim and the company's line in general.

As an example of the value of this level of fidelity in sim training, Sibley explains, "When you're taking off in an airplane, you're at a high angle of attack, you're going very slow, and obviously you're very close to the ground. That's a bad time to be startled by a thump, a noise, or a particular vibration the airplane may actually produce, that's not going to be verbally well-described in a classroom."

FMI: www.fain.com/fain-simulation-systems.html, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews