SOUTHAMPTON, Pa., 3 March 2005. Environmental Tectonics Corp. today announced receipt of a $4 million contract from the Japanese Defense Agency (JDA) for its Advanced Spatial Disorientation Trainer, the GYROLAB GL-4000.
The GYROLAB GL-4000 represents the newest technology in Spatial Disorientation and will be manufactured and tested in ETC's main manufacturing plant this year. The GYROLAB GL-4000 replaces the 15-year-old GYROLAB GL-3000, also provided to the JDA by ETC, which has trained thousands of JDA pilots. The GL-4000 has higher simulation fidelity, the capability for sustained G simulation, and higher motion system performance. It will be used by the JDA to train its high performance aircraft pilots and other combat aircrew to successfully deal with the problem of spatial disorientation.
Spatial Disorientation remains a serious problem for military air forces and commercial airlines worldwide and results in many lost pilot lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in aircraft losses each year. Increasingly complicated flight activities, increased night and bad weather flight operations, night vision goggle flight operations, and more complex and capable aircraft all exacerbate the problem. ETC has applied latest aeromedical and flight simulation technology to create a simulator that can provide the pilot with the knowledge and skills needed to safely and effectively operate in these challenging environments.
The GYROLAB GL-4000 combines all the elements of fidelity including cockpit, aeromodel, visual display, motion, environment and mission to stress the pilot in the simulator just as he is stressed while flying the aircraft. This capability results in maximum learning transfer to the aircraft. ETC achieves this high level of realism by including real world, out-the-window visual effects, realistic engine and flight sounds, detailed aircraft cockpit with closed-loop flight controls and a high fidelity aeromodel. Force feedback control loading is included to provide the pilot trainee with the most realistic flight experience short of flying an actual aircraft.
The high fidelity cockpit is mounted on an electromechanical motion system that exceeds the capability of conventional six-degrees-of-freedom motion systems, while quietly and economically delivering high reliability. This motion system, developed and patented by ETC specifically to support spatial disorientation training, stimulates the pilot with simultaneous continuous and transient motion cues plus sustained G cueing.
"The GYROLAB GL-4000 includes ETC's cutting edge technology in Authentic Tactical Flight Simulation. Never before have pilots been able to train this realistically in ground-based simulators. Training in the aircraft is costly and ETC has developed a way for pilots to safely and economically hone their skills while saving training costs and preserving aircraft service life," said William F. Mitchell, ETC's president and CEO.
ETC designs, develops, installs and maintains aircrew training systems, public entertainment systems, process simulation systems, (sterilization and environmental), clinical hyperbaric systems, environmental testing and simulation systems, and related products for domestic and international customers. For more information, see www.etcusa.com.
