Simulators in aviation began as a training device. They were setup to help train pilots fly flying machines (as they were called in the early days of aviation). They had a role to play.

Fast forward a century…. the same technology (more advanced, no doubt!) is now used to design and test the very machine that it was to help train people for.

Flight simulators have come a long way in their evolution. This is a classic example of how the role for technology can shift 180 degrees with time. The accuracy of flight models on modern simulators is astounding. I have had the opportunity to measure and compare distinct performance parameters between real-world aircraft and a few different models of aviation training devices, and the coherence of software models to the real-world object is so precise. The picture below is an example of such a comparison. It is hard to tell which one is the real thing. Stall performance, fuel burn, climb and descent profiles, lift modeling are accurately engineered.

Instructing a computer to do all this through programming is very valuable. The next generation of this evolution has the machine learning by itself, and beyond that telling the human what to do. Indeed a powerful sequence of outcomes.

Thanks,
CP Jois