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Queensland-based Ryan Aerospace has used the first day of I/ITSEC to launch its latest helicopter simulator product, the HELIMOD Mark III PLUS+.
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I/ITSEC (Interservice/Industry Simulation and Education Conference) is the world’s largest military simulation and training event, held annually in Orlando, Florida.
This new helicopter simulator product is similar to the existing Ryan Aerospace HELIMOD Mark III virtual reality device already in service with the US Army, US Navy and Australian Navy (to name just a few), but has full active control loading in the cyclic, collective and pedals controls.
This provides an even greater level of realism and configurability, but in a cost-effective way.
Chris Ryan, managing director of Ryan Aerospace, said that "this new product provides customers and users even more control over how the helicopter controls feel and reacts, offering greater realism but at a much more appealing price-point when compared with anything else on the market".
Just like the standard HELIMOD Mark III, the cyclic and collective controls are easily interchangeable between aircraft type.
A number of other partners have contributed to the demo unit on display, such as Varjo, a new kind of virtual reality goggles visual system.
"The control loading system is of very high quality and comes with all of the software and hardware that allows you to tweak a variety of parameters until such time the desired 'control feel' is achieved," said Ryan.
The resolution of traditional VR devices has been just a fraction of what the average human eye can see. Now, for the first time ever, the Varjo head-mounted display delivers an unprecedented resolution of 60 pixels per degree – the equivalent of 20/20 vision. This is extremely important for flight training where students must be able to read the gauges and instruments.
Apache and Black Hawk flight models have been integrated into the training system by SASimulations and the visual image generator is VBS Blue by Bohemia Interactive.
The HELIMOD Mark III PLUS+ in this configuration takes what is already considered to be a world-leading product to the next level of realism. It is designed to meet the tough demands of military helicopter flight training customers.
For those attending the event, you can see this exciting new product along with the standard version and fixed wing variants provided by Precision Flight Controls (PFC) based in Sacramento, California, which has partnered with Ryan Aerospace on a number of projects.
