Flight Simulation Technology: Hardware and Software Report Analysis

This report provides an overview of flight simulation technology, focusing on the hardware and software components used to create realistic virtual flight experiences for pilot training and research. It discusses the evolution of flight simulations, highlighting the use of hardware such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), aural displays, haptic displays, and vestibular displays to enhance immersion. The report also examines the software aspects, including the use of programs like MATLAB and Simulink for generating flight scenarios, predicting aircraft behavior, and simulating environmental factors like wind shear and turbulence. The importance of combining hardware and software for effective simulations, the role of fidelity, and the benefits of these technologies in improving pilot skills, flight safety, and aircraft design are also emphasized. The report references various sources, including research on the transfer of training, simulation as a service, and the theory of modeling and simulation.

Flight simulation technology hardware and software 1
Flight simulation technology hardware and software
Executive summary
Flight simulation technology relies on the use of key software and hardware with
the aim of enriching the pilots with expertise to feel the flying of flights in virtual world. The
flight simulations have been developed for long and the technological changes keep on
advancing to enable proper depiction of the flight situations. Convectional displays are used as
part of the hardware in the flight simulations. To enhance the user with a more immerse
experience, head mounted displays (HMDs) are provided. The simulation must be able to predict
the different scenarios which the aircrafts are able to face while on flight. The pilot through these
simulations are enriched with the key experiences on what decisions they are likely to make
while on real flights. Additionally, in some hardware, the use of special software to improve on
prediction of the flight scenarios is highly done. for instance, special sound software is utilized to
help in producing the 3D audio effects in the virtual world. The 3D production through the
software helps to create the illusion that the sound is available in a defined 3D space and thus
helping in improving the pilot’s skills and proper actualization of scenarios. Pilots are able to
acquire additional skills and experiences to hand aircrafts through the use of flight simulation
technologies. The use of the hardware and software have been advancing each time due to
technological improvements.
Flight simulation is defined as a virtual reality system, which is capable of simulating the
environment of a flying an aircraft for the pilot. The simulation uses both a hardware, which is
an aircraft models which the pilot sits and a software which depicts the situations of flight and
conditions to be experienced. Flight simulations have been developed to provide training to
pilots at the instruction levels, the students level to enhance their skills to fly and earn virtual
flight hours (Sherman, & Craig, 2013). These are useful for flying real aircrafts. In addition,
simulations are also used to simulate normal flight conditions at the different adverse conditions
and spatial disorientation when navigating at different conditions. These simulations help to
analyze, control and learn about the flights control and flight conditions. The simulations
software is able to generate the movements and images, whereby the pilots are able to feel the
level of realism on what is likely to happen in a real plane situation. The flight simulation is a

Flight simulation technology hardware and software 2
system which consists of a software and hardware (Andrea, Bürki-Cohen & Tiauw 2010). This
system is able to allow the user to experience and feel the situation when in a specific type of
aircraft. This means that the simulations ae designs for different aircrafts according to their
conditions. The major simulation hardware and software technology is used for the purposes of
training, designs research as well as control handling of the flight conditions.
Powerful computers have aided the generation of advanced and complicated software
which create high efficient simulations. For the flight simulation to be successful, the
combination between the hardware part and the software must be done. The flight simulation
hardware and software through the fidelity improvement have been able to ensure that real-time
constraints solutions are solved as well as guarantee on quality attributions. To achieve the full
benefits of the simulations, software architecture decomposition modules and hardware
architecture are usually provided (Kuhl, Weatherly, & Dahmann, 2015). This is done through the
object oriented technology which is combined with the rapid control prototyping technology.
This technology is able to help in recreating an aircraft flight environment for training the pilots
and improve on their flight attendance.
The flight simulation hardware and software are able to replicate the key equations that
control the aircraft flights, how they react with the surrounding environments and the flight
controls. Also the technologies are able to react to the effects of other aircraft systems, how they
react to external factors like the wind shear speed, cloud interactions, precipitation, air density
and turbulences among other conditions (Zeigler, Praehofer, & Kim, 2017). The simulation
technology software and hardware effectiveness and training efficiency are the major reasons for
their use. The simulation hardware consists of visual displays which are able to provide the
visual stimuli to the users. These are small displays which are mounted in headgear and are worn

Flight simulation technology hardware and software 3
by the users during the simulation exercise. The HMDs should be light in weight to reduce the
fatigue when there is prolonged use by the users (Cayirci, 2013). In addition, another hardware
used for the flight simulation exercise is the aural display. These are audio systems which help
the users to hear and be able to localize the sound spatially.
In addition, as part of the simulation hardware, haptic display technology is used to
provide the sensible touch to the use. The major output from this is usually referred to as force
feedback. In addition, the sense of the motion during the simulations is also provided by the
vestibular display. This is the major motion simulator hardware during the flight simulations.
This hardware is able to produce the motion bases for the virtual flight simulation (Bruzzone &
Massei, 2016). The vestibular displays will be able to simulate any anticipated motion during the
simulation exercise. In addition to the flight hardware simulation exercise, the simulation
software technology plays an important role to interface between the different applications and
the simulation architectures. This interface is based on the interactions of the different
programmed modules. The software helps to produce the dimensional applications on the
specific programs used. software such as MATLAB, MathWork or Simulink have been widely
used as key software in the flight simulation. The software helps in production of the prediction
systems, machine visions and image processing for the simulation exercises. The improvements
on the flight simulation hardware and software technologies are happening each day and this is
meant to improve the platforms of interactions. The use of these technologies are increased the
efficiency of the flights due to the increased and efficiency on condition predictions.
One of the major successful application in the virtual world is the use of the software in
flight simulations. According to Bruzzone et. al. (2014), the technologies of the flight simulation
hardware and software are done differently and tested differently according to the aircraft

Flight simulation technology hardware and software 4
systems they are designed to operate and the pilots use them according to the aircrafts they are
training for. Through the simulation hardware and software, the pilots are able to get fast hand
experiences on handling each aircraft and familiarize on key decisions which they are likely to
encounter at differently situations. The use of the technologies helps the pilots to be able to
achieve the key objectives, testing and maintaining proficiency while handling the aircrafts. The
simulations are made of “multiple displays, control devices, an audio system for communications
and a computer system to process control inputs and record flight data” (Bruzzone et al., 2014).
The major advantages which are achieved through the use of these technological software and
hardware include the improvement on environmental factors and safety on flights through proper
replication of flight scenarios. Moreover, stationary speakers have also been utilized as part of
the hardware to be able to produce the dual surrounding sound. nevertheless, in the simulations,
the 3D headphones are in many cases preferred than the external factors. The hardware
preferences in many cases depend on the portability issues among others.
References

Flight simulation technology hardware and software 5
Andrea L. S.; Bürki-Cohen; J. Tiauw H. G. (2010). Transfer of Training from a Full-Flight
Simulator vs. a High Level Flight Training Device with a Dynamic Seat. AIAA Modeling
and Simulation Technologies Conference.
Bruzzone A.G., Massei M., (2016). Simulation-Based Military Training, in Guide to Simulation-
Based Disciplines, Vol.1. 315–361.
Bruzzone, A. G., Massei, M., Tremori, A., Longo, F., Nicoletti, L., Poggi, S., & Poggio, G.
(2014). MS2G: simulation as a service for data mining and crowdsourcing in
vulnerability Reduction. Proceedings of WAMS, Istanbul, September.
Cayirci, E. (2013, December). Modeling and simulation as a cloud service: a survey. In
Simulation Conference (WSC), 2013 Winter (pp. 389–400). IEEE.
Kuhl, F., Weatherly, R., & Dahmann, J. (2015). Creating computer simulation systems: an
introduction to the high-level architecture. Prentice Hall PTR.
Sherman, W.R.; Craig, A.B. (2013). Understanding Virtual Reality. San Francisco, CA: Morgan
Kaufmann. ISBN 978-1-55860-353-0.
Zeigler, B. P., Praehofer, H., & Kim, T. G. (2017) "Theory of Modeling and Simulation:
Integrating Discrete Event and Continuous Complex Dynamic Systems", Elsevier,
Amsterdam.