Top flight technology

The first commercial full-flight simulator for the Airbus A380 is ready for inspection by its first customer, Singapore Airlines. Developed by Thales UK at its site near Gatwick Airport the system uses a number of innovative technologies that makes it one of the most advanced simulators on the market, said the programme's lead engineer, Alan Bailey.

Each full-sized simulator will cost between £15-20m, and when full flight data from operational aircraft is eventually fed in during the course of the next year it will be classified as a Grade D simulator.

This means that qualified pilots could fulfil all of their mandatory flight time in the simulator and fly their first commercial plane — with passengers — without ever having flown that particular aircraft before. Bailey added that although this was legal, it was unlikely that any airline would take this option.

With the inside of the cockpit exactly replicating the real thing, the complete A380 experience is provided by a high-resolution digitised recreation of the outside world through the cockpit window. Three cathode-ray tube projectors beam overlapping visual effects on to paper-thin mirrors that wrap around the windows.