Indra, the principal IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, will develop the simulator for pilots of the CL 415 seaplanes of the Ministry of Defence of Spain that are usually employed in firefighting. The company signed an agreement with the seaplane Canadian supplier Bombardier to design and manufacture this training system for euros 2.5 M. The system will become operative by the summer of 2009 and will be implemented at Torrejon air base in order to train the Emergency Military Unit (UME).
This solution will enhance pilots’ training capacity in Spain, especially with respect to the growth of the country’s firefighting fleet. With this simulator, the only one of its kind in Europe, complex manoeuvres, for instance, low level flights with poor visibility, which imply a high level of risk, can be accomplished safely.
The system consists of a pilot position that is an accurate replica of the CL 415’s cabin and an instructor position. The equipment will be the same as that of a real aircraft, and the aircraft’s behaviour and response will also be accurately reproduced. To make it all more true to life, the pilot will also hear the engines running, the aircraft’s undercarriage during take off or landing, as well as the sounds produced by the manoeuvres and external environmental. Furthermore, there must be communications between the aircraft and the air base and control tower as in real missions.
The student will be provided with a visualization angle of 180º horizontal and 40º vertical. The scenery of the training sessions will be very detailed. Runways, beacons and hangars will seem very real, as well as the buildings of five air bases across the country where these aircrafts operate. Furthermore, the simulator reproduces other fictitious airports to provide diversity in training. The landscape will be reproduced with real parameters, including the coastline and lakes in order to simulate water collection exercises.
Instructors will be able to devise espcially difficult exercises, such as unexpected obstacles encountered during water collection from lakes. The difficulty level of flight conditions can be increased by adding factors of poor visibility, such as smoke, rain, fog, wind, or a nighttime setting.
With the simulator, pilots can train in dangerous scenarios that could prove too risky for the aircraft and the pilots’ lives and would be impossible to reproduce in real conditions. Once completed, the demand for the simulator is expected to be high, as piloting these types of planes implies great risk and investment in training is necessary. Further, this simulator will be the only one of its kind in Europe and the most modern in the market.
Indra is a leading simulation company worldwide and is widely experienced in the development of flight simulators, for instance: the simulators for F-18, AV-8B Harrier, Eurofighter, C-130 Hercules, A-320 passenger aircraft, Boeing 737 and the ATR 72 aircrafts and for the Cougar, Tigre, Black Hawk, MH53 or EC 135 helicopters.
The company has also implemented simulation systems for air traffic management, controllers of high-speed rails, tube, lorries, city and intercity buses, and civil machinery operators, among others.
Indra is Spain’s first IT multinational and one of Europe and Latin America’s most important. It is the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation, and it is also the second Spanish company with the highest investment in R&D. In 2007, revenues exceeded € 2,167 million a third from international markets. The company employs more than 24,000 professionals and has developed projects in more than 90 countries.