Fly The Dreamliner!... Simulator

With the first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner apparently on track for later this year, pilots will soon need to start learning how to fly the composite airliner. CAE is here to help with that... and the company tells ANN it has sold its first three 787 full-flight simulators: two to Qantas and one to Shanghai Eastern Flight Training, the training subsidiary for China Eastern Airlines.

Qantas ordered two B787 FFSs and suites of CAE Simfinity training devices, including a CAE Simfinity B787 integrated procedures trainer (IPT) for each suite. It is proposed that each simulator will feature CAE's next-generation visual solution, including the new CAE Tropos-6000 visual system and Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) projectors. In addition, Qantas' B787 FFSs will use CAE's new electric motion system. The first B787 FFS will be delivered to Qantas' training center in 2008.

Shanghai Eastern Flight Training (SEFT) is the first Chinese carrier to order training equipment for the new B787 aircraft. The simulator will be delivered in late 2008 to the SEFT centre in Shanghai.

"We are proud to have received our first simulator orders for the B787 from major airlines. Airlines that have ordered the Boeing 787 are beginning to address their upcoming training requirements and CAE is prepared to meet these requirements with the industry's most innovative and comprehensive suite of simulation products," said Marc Parent, CAE's Group President, Simulation Products and Military Training & Services. "We have a proven track record for building simulators for new aircraft types and an intense focus on customer support which makes CAE the ideal B787 training partner."

In addition, CAE has sold a Boeing 737-800 full-flight simulator to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

At list prices, including buyer-furnished data and equipment, the contracts are valued at $67 million (Canadian) and bring the total full-flight simulator (FFS) sales that CAE has announced so far in fiscal 2007 to 33.

The B737-800 FFS for KLM will be delivered in the spring of 2008 to KLM's training centre at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The simulator will feature CAE's next-generation electric motion system as well as Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) projectors.

FMI: www.cae.com