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One of the most effective tools pilots and engineers use when learning about aircraft

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is the flight simulator.

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Simulators have been around almost as long as airplanes have.

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In fact, in early models, pilots would practice flying by sitting in wooden barrels suspended

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off the ground.

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Simulators have come a long way since then, but the basic idea of making flying safer

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hasn't changed.

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Today, they are incredibly complex machines that are used not just to help pilots learn

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to fly, but are used to run experiments or tests which can be too expensive or too dangerous

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to attempt in flight.

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I spoke with Marshall Smith at NASA Langley Research Center to find out how they work.

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So, Marshall, what are the differences between NASA flight simulators and other simulators?

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Well, the difference between NASA flight simulators and other simulators are mainly in the training

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environment versus engineering and research.

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Other types of simulators are used for training, and so they benefit one pilot or the pilots

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that are out there learning to fly airplanes, but our simulators are used for developing

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engineering concepts or things that make flying safer.

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So what are some real-world problems that simulators have solved?

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Some of the problems are related to safety.

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For example, wind shear detection and avoidance was a big problem.

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Wind shear occurs when you have a real strong downdraft, and it could occur from thunderstorms

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or it could occur near a mountainside or even in clear air, but basically what happens

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is it causes the plane to lose lift and crash, and 15 to 20 years ago, a lot of planes were

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crashing because of wind shear problems, but engineering simulators were used at NASA particularly

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to detect wind shears and also give them guidance as to how to get out of a wind shear condition

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and actually land the plane safely.

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Wind shear is rarely a problem anymore.

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So that was like 15 or 20 years ago.

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What are some current things that you're working on today?

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Okay, some of the problems we're working on today involve synthetic vision, where we're

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trying to give the pilot an out-the-window picture of what the world looks like if he

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can't see.

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If he's flying through clouds or it's really low visibility, he can look down at this display

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and see what he would see if there was clear air outside of him.

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Other things that we're working on are keeping planes properly spaced apart if they're doing

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parallel approaches or on the ground.

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If planes are taxiing around and air traffic control inadvertently tells somebody to go

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in front of a plane, he has another method where he can determine that something bad

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is happening.

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So how have simulators changed over the years?

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Over the past 15 to 20 years, simulators have changed dramatically, and that's largely due

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to the computer revolution and changes in graphic systems from the entertainment industry.

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These simulators have gotten much more accurate and detailed, the simulations themselves,

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to the point that we can do a simulation and then go out and fly the real aircraft

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and really find no differences in the two.

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So are pilots the only ones using flight simulators?

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Well, absolutely not.

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Actually, our simulators are used by researchers who are engineers and technicians who are

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developing all of these programs so that we can determine whether they'll be good for

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the aviation industry or not.

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And then pilots are brought in actually at the end of the program so that they can be

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used as test subjects to determine whether the information then is going to be good enough

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to take onto the airplane for further tests.

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Pilots also help us develop the tests as well.

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So Marshall, can you show me how the simulator works?

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Sure.

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We're actually at Dallas-Fort Worth right now, and we're going to take off from Dallas-Fort

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Worth, and you're going to do it for us.

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So you take your throttles, move them all the way forward, your flaps are already set,

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and you're ready to go.

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Start with this, right?

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There we go.

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All right.

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As your airspeed gets up to about 1 feet, okay, you can pull back.

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Go ahead and pull back.

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There you go.

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All right.

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Now you can push forward a little bit.

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And you just took off.

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This is amazing.

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If it's in the real aircraft, it's in this simulator.

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This particular simulator is a copy of our 757 aircraft that we have at NASA that we

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use for research.

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It's a copy of the forward nose section.

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So we actually have, if we have a particular research instrument in the aircraft, we'll

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put it in the simulator as well.

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You guys must have fun working up here.

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It's a blast.

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Look at me saying up here.

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We're nowhere.

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This is cool.

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Thanks a lot, Marshall.

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This has been so much fun.

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It's been my pleasure.

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You can come back anytime.

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Thank you.

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I will.

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I just have one question.

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Okay.

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Where do I put the quarters?

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Oh, that goes right over here.

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Yeah?

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