Swappable Componentization via Integration Levying Lightweight Simulators (SCILLS)

The Department of Defense (DoD) and US Air Force (USAF) face a continuing pilot shortage. In 2019 the DoD told Congress the shortfall was more than 3,000 pilots across the USAF, US Army, and US Navy. The USAF is implementing a number of strategies to ease this pilot crisis including embracing new technologies, increasing retention incentives, and modernizing the pilot training process. Embracing new technologies such as commercial flight simulators, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and haptic feedback, to name a few, is critical to augment the training process and maximize live flight training opportunities. Tangram Flex, Inc (Tangram) proposes to further the technical goals of the USAF pilot training program by advancing the accuracy of the flight characteristics for “lightweight” simulators. This will enable the training conducted on lightweight simulators to more accurately reflect the aircraft student pilots use for live flight training to maximize trainee preparedness. The goal of this Phase II project is to create a modular software flight training construct, utilizing the same Operational Flight Program (OFP) currently operating in an Air Force-certified flight simulator to both increase the realism of the lightweight simulators and align training efforts for student pilots across all training platforms.