BOURNEMOUTH, England, June 16 (UPI) -- Cobham Plc has delivered four converted Hawker-Beechcraft B350ER King Air aircraft for the U.K. Military Flying Training System.
Ascent Flight Training Limited took possession of the planes during a ceremony last week at Cobham Aviation Services' facility adjacent to Bournemouth International Airport.
"These aircraft, and the services provided by Ascent and Cobham, offer the (British navy) a huge leap in its capability to conduct primary flight training of aircrew," said Des Taylor, general manager of Cobham Aviation Services.
Cobham said navy and Ascent personnel will use the aircraft to train navy observers to navigate and operate their aircraft tactically, prior to commencing operational flying training on Lynx, Merlin and Sea King helicopters.
Fitted with twin student training consoles and twin instructor consoles, the aircraft will be equipped with a 360-degree telephonic RDR1700A underbelly radar and full navigation and communications suites.
The onboard training system will be managed by CAE's Tactical Mission Trainer software system, which includes the Blue Ridge synthetic radar.
Collectively, this new system will enable numerous opportunities to "download" training from later stages in the training pipeline, Cobham said.
The Australian air force and the Canadian military use a similar system for training tactical navigators.
