Indra develops a trainer for the A330 MRTT inflight refuelling tanker

Airbus Defence & Space has entrusted Indra, one of the world’s leading global consulting and technology companies, the development of a tactical and integrated procedures trainer (IPT) for training pilots who operate the A330 MRTT aerial refueling tanker. System delivery is scheduled for 2019.

With this new project, Indra strengthens its leadership position as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of simulators. The company has supplied over 200 simulators to over fifty clients in 23 countries.

The trainer will be a key element for pilots to familiarise themselves with the systems of the A330 MRTT tanker. All of them must pass a mandatory training period before assuming control of the real aircraft, which requires the completion of a number of flight hours onboard simulators and trainers. These types of equipment enable training on protocols to be applied in anomalous situations which are impossible to reproduce using a real plane, such as engine failure, stall of the aircraft, or emergency landings, for example.

The trainer replicates the cockpit’s instrument panel with the aid of touchscreens. This reduce costs, in avoiding the need to use real equipment, and enables pilots to learn by ‘putting their hands on the wheel’ of the aircraft from the very beginning, to move on to ‘flying’ in the Full Flight Simulator during the final stage.

This preparation is intense and eminently practical. This results in pilots’ having a faster and improved training process so that they’re ready to fly an aircraft with maximum safety levels as soon as possible.

Indra’s IPT may be connected to the Partial Training system (PTT) used by boom operators for refueling the A330 MRTT. This way, pilots can train to perform this complex operation in which they must coordinate with the boom operators and with the crew of the aircraft being refuelled.

Indra has also developed simulators of the Airbus commercial aircraft A320 and A330, and of the Airbus helicopters H135, H225, H175, H145 and AS350. Its systems fly in countries all over the globe, including among others the USA, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Malaysia and Brazil.