Elizabeth Barr

Engineering and Science (B&FC) | Year 4 | Degree: Aerospace Engineering

A Training Needs Analysis for In-Air Refuelling Training in a Synthetic Environment

As part of their ASTRA initiative, the Royal Air Force have published an intent to move to 80% synthetic flying training by 2040. To do this, significant change needs to be made to the current synthetic training program, looking initially at the sorties required that are currently impossible in an RAF standard synthetic trainer. This paper considered the implementation of in-air refuelling training into a synthetic training environment for Eurofighter Typhoon. This research is timely, since the F-35 Lightning II aircraft is now in service with the RAF, which does not have a twin-seat trainer; thus all initial training is completed synthetically.

This study assessed the plausibility of in-air refuelling in a Eurofighter Typhoon synthetic trainer, alongside threats and opportunities for development. Through an extensive literature review, task breakdown analysis, and steering group survey, a set of key features were defined to enable immersive sorties; namely improved physical motion modelling of the refuelling basket, and inclusion of future technology. Integrating virtual reality goggles and haptic gloves with a future synthetic trainer, along with investigating partnerships to develop physics models, could reduce live training, incur considerable relative savings, and could allow one device to model multiple aircraft across the RAF fleet.

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