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Flight Simulator in the classroom. Learn how you can use Flight Simulator 2004
to provide hands-on learning experience for your pupils.
Click here for more.
Design
airliners of the future for some great prizes!!! Click
here for details
Dr Simon Newman (sjn1@soton.ac.uk)
Dr Kenji Takeda (ktakeda@soton.ac.uk)
Southampton Flight Simulator used in major documentary about the Dambusters Click here for details and video clips. For other news click here. (Image copyright Andrew Hasson/Channel 4)
To view a Windows Media Player movie of the visit to Southampton by PC Pilot magazine click here. For a higher resolution version click here.
Many simulations have been developed using the fidelity of the simulation as the overall goal. The original aim of our flight simulator work was to develop a COTS (commodity off-the-shelf) simulator to be used as the basis of a design tool. Whilst this fidelity of major importance, the use of simulation in the design loop is seen at Southampton as equally important. The advantages of using low cost off-the-shelf software and hardware was seen as the challenge. Could this type of "games" software be used to produce a high-grade system of calculation and simulation?
Several years ago,
BAE SYSTEMS funded
the University and donated
equipment to allow the construction of our flight simulator, including two Harrier T4 ejector seats, taken from the actual
aircraft used in a James Bond film. Later on, GKN
Westland Helicopters also contributed to its development and support from
Qinetiq, Microsoft, Intel, Matrox, Just Flight, Thrustmaster, Eizo, Visual flight, Getmapping and Tigress
Productions is helping us to continue development of this
facility. We have recently built a portable version of our flight simulator,
pictured left, which we have been exhibiting and is used in our undergraduate
teaching at Southampton.
By using student projects, both group and individual, the simulator has been used to link design programs to the simulator and to software driving CAD/CAM manufacture. In this way the ability to place the simulator within the design, testing and manufacturing aspects of an air vehicle is generated. Over the past few years we have run many different student projects, published articles about our work and continue to work closely with leading aerospace, flight simulation, hardware and software companies to push the limits of COTS flight simulation technology in an engineering context.
Picture shows Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 with Visual Flight VFR Scenery. Click on the image for a full 1024x768 image.
Picture shows Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 running on with a triple-head Matrox Parhelia graphics card at 3072x768 resolution.. Click image for full 3072x768 image.