IEEE Spectrum June, 2014 - 24

resources_careers

lying combat missions in a jet

fighter requires reflexes that can
respond to challenging terrain, shifting mission objectives, and hostile forces. Danny
Jones is helping U.S. Air Force pilots develop
those reflexes by building perhaps the most
advanced military flight simulator in the world.
Jones is the systems architect for the F-16
Mission Training Center (MTC) simulator built by
L-3 Link Simulation & Training, headquartered in
Arlington, Texas. The MTC was first employed by
Nellis Air Force Base, in Las Vegas, in February
2012, and it has since been rolled out to several
more bases in the United States and overseas.
Each MTC can accommodate four pilots simultaneously, and all of the MTCs can connect with
each other for large-scale networked virtual
training exercises.
As the United States increasingly fights in
cities and towns, "the idea is to aid the pilot in
immersion in a dense urban environment and
provide a more realistic view of what they would
see in an actual flight," says Jones.
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Jun 2014

norTH aMerIcan

BITS In flIGHT: With advanced graphics technologies, this simulator can faithfully mimic the challenges
an F-16 pilot can face during combat missions.

Simulator training enables more flying practice and per-session combat training exercises at considerable savings. It costs about
97 percent less per hour to operate an MTC
than to actually fly four F-16s. Not least are the
savings on wear and tear: Each MTC is expected
to last 20 years, but the aircraft's service life is
limited to 12 000 flight hours.
The MTC system advances the state of the art
through sharper visuals, more realistic city landscapes, and artificial intelligence-controlled vehicles and pedestrians that react to the aircraft and
each other. Each MTC is powered by a combined
total of 440 servers. The simulators re-create the
F-16 cockpit, tactical controls, vibrations, and
visuals on a 360-degree, 18-facet domed display.
The system also simulates views coming
through infrared and low light optical sensors, as
well as night-vision goggles. The latter required

sPecTruM.Ieee.orG

Danny jones

the particularly complicated task of replicating their imperfections, such as depth perception loss or light blindness when firing weapons.
"The challenge of simulating night-vision goggles
was duplicating the same miscues and effects
they would have in the aircraft," says Jones. "That
way pilots can learn corrective habits."
Jones earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Mississippi State University in
1984, and he spent his career working his way
up in flight simulation systems at companies like
Link, Raytheon, Hughes, and now L-3.
"Mechanical engineering gave me a mind-set
and process for architecting components and
building them over time," he says. "But I liked the
flexibility of working in software and being able
to create something much faster than working
with actual hardware." That flexibility has come
in handy when adjusting to increasingly rapid
improvements in video and graphics hardware.
"The whole simulation visual capacity technology out there today is moving at an extremely
rapid pace, driven to a large extent by the gaming industry," says Dan Kelly, L-3's vice president
of Air Force programs. "Fifteen years ago, simulation used to be done with custom products;
today it's almost all commercial off-the-shelf."
Currently, the MTC synchronizes the output
of more than 100 graphics cards into a seamless scene across the pilot's 360-degree field of
view, says Jones. "But instead of flat panels, we're
now working on a more streamlined system
using curved LCDs or LED displays to create a
domelike environment that requires fewer cards,
thereby reducing its computational footprint."
The system feels so lifelike, Jones hesitates
when asked if he, too, is a pilot. "I'm confident
enough to think that I am," he says, laughing.
"I've spent enough hours in the simulator that
I claim I can fly." -SuSan KaRlIn
pHoTo-IlluSTRaTIon By

Gluekit

photo: swiss federal office of topoGraphy

PRofIle: DannY JoneS
this systeMs architect builds
the Most advanced f-16
coMbat siMulators

http://sPecTruM.Ieee.orG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum June, 2014