GB749048A - Improvements in or relating to flight training apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

749,048. Ground trainers for pilots. COMMUNICATIONS PATENTS, Ltd. June 15, 1954, No. 17561/54. Class 4. Ground-based flight training apparatus comprises a cockpit representing an aircraft which is given angular movements responsive to the forces assumed to be acting on the centre of gravity of the aircraft as a result of movement of the flying controls. Such forces include thrust, drag, lift, and centrifugal forces but not couples. Electric computing means compute these forces and the direction of their resultant, and orientate the cockpit accordingly. Small movements of the aircraft simulated may be reproduced faithfully, while large movements are cut down to limit the maximum angular displacement. The cockpit 3 is universally mounted at 5 and is controlled in pitch and roll by rods 6, 9 eccentrically pivoted to discs 7, 10, rotated by electric motors energized by the computer. As an example, in the case of a properly banked turn, the resultant force on the pilot of a real aircraft is perpendicular to his seat, and the trainer cockpit will not roll, whereas if the turn is not correctly banked, the resultant force on a real aircraft will have a lateral component relative to the aircraft axes, and the training cockpit will roll to give a simulating lateral force on the training pilot.