The Department of Aeronautics houses a full motion, six degree-of-freedom, enclosed flight simulator as well as static simulation stations. The simulators can accurately reproduce the flight characteristics of existing and novel aerospace vehicle designs, allowing students and researchers to test not only the aircraft’s performance, but also its handling qualities.
The full motion simulator further enhances the level of realism and immersion for pilots, providing motion cues representative of those that would be experienced in flight. The simulators have a layout inspired by the cockpit of a commercial airliner. However, this is highly reconfigurable with users able to customise the control and flight instrument layouts, selecting ones most appropriate to the aircraft they wish to test. Providing 180-degree wrap-around visuals, realistic representations of the surrounding terrain, customisable atmospheric and weather properties, and accurate airport runway layouts for all the airports around the world, the simulators can be used to test aircraft in a wide variety of scenarios.