TRU Simulation + Training : Québec Aerospace Best Kept Secret.

 

MONTRÉAL – In the field of flight training and simulation, the first names coming to the mind are generally LaGuardia, New York based FlightSafety which invented this industry and Saint-Laurent, Québec based CAE.

But on the way to Montréal-Trudeau Airport and close to CAE campus, is located one the Québec aerospace best kept secret : TRU Simulation + Training.

In the middle of the microprocessor revolution, in an research and development laboratory at Montreal’s Concordia University five graduate students were assigned a project to build a flight simulator using microprocessor technology, launched by the National Research Council Canada (NRC). The five students, Fernando Petruzziello, Joaquim Frazao, Marco Petruzziello, Thomas Allen and Xavier-Henri Hervé  successfully completed their project, graduated and established their own company in 1987, namely Mechtronix.  It started as an engineering consultancy group specializing in all aspects of microprocessor industrial applications. When the aeronautical regulations later evolved to allow Mechtronix’ technology to be offered on to the aviation training market, the graduate students launched in 1996 its family of flight training simulators ranging from software applications to Flight Training Devices (FTD) and full motion Level D Full Flight Simulators (FFS).

In November 2013, Providence, Rhode Island based Textron (NYSE: TXT), a Fortune 500 company known around the world for its powerful brands like Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Beechcraft, Hawker, and Textron Systems serving customers in the aviation and defense industries acquired two legacy flight simulator manufacturers : Mechtronix of Saint-Laurent, Québec and Opinicus of Lutz, Florida. Textron brought them together with the Goose Creek, South Carolina-based AAI Logistics & Technical Services, an unit of Textron Defense to form a new company, TRU Simulation + Training. Later that same year, TRU acquired ProFlight, a part 142 certified Cessna Citation CJ and Conquest series pilot training center based in Carlsbad, California.

According to George Karam, VP & GM, Air Transport Simulation, TRU Simulation + Training ‘It was really the amalgamation of three entities that each brought a certain level, a set of expertise and capabilities which allowed us to have now a complete portfolio of products and services’.

At the time, Mechtronix was focused on commercial fixed wing flight simulation, mainly in emerging markets, for OEM, airlines and training centers.   Mr. Karam added : ‘Really focused on the fixed wing application we had done a first Boeing 737NG FFS, asides from flight simulator for Airbus A320, ATR-42, Cessna and Beechcraft business aircraft like the Citation CJ1, CJ1+, CJ3 and King Air and general aviation aircraft’.

Except for the software supplied by external vendors, most of the hardware of the FTD and FFS built in Saint-Laurent is made in house like the frames, the panels and the visual displays.

For its part, Opinicus was split 50-50 between civil mostly business aviation essentially for Cessna Citation and Bell Helicopter and military work.

The former AAI carved out from Textron Systems was primarily defense, providing mission training for the U.S. Air Force’s Boeing (né Rockwell) B-1B Lancer, maintenance trainers for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

Although both companies have been around for some 25 years, Mechtronix and Opinicus had made only small inroads into a simulation market dominated by FlightSafety Interational and CAE on the civil side and L-3 Simulation & Training on the military side.

The goal of Textron in founding TRU was to get a full-fledged training company.

‘Textron was able to identify that Mechtronix had a strong technology with good capacities in the simulation area but as a company we were lacking a balance sheet ‘underlined Mr. Karam, ‘So having Textron as the parent company providing the fuel to grow the company that would allowed us to go the next step and be able to compete’.

At the time of the acquisition, Mechtronix has less than 200 employees and now employs more than 350 people. TRU is planning to hire more than 150 workers essentialy technicians and engineers to support the growth of the Air Transport Simulation division in Saint-Laurent.

TRU Air Transport Simulation is delivering about 20 FTD and FFS a year than means that since the acquisition of Mechtronix by Textron, the output has more than doubled reminded Mr. Karam

He underlined the fact that a small company with investments from Textron is able to compete internationaly and grow. For him, the fact that a Canadian company owned by an American group with a presence in Montréal is supplying FFS and FTD to Boeing for their new aircraft ‘is a huge vote of confidence’.

Mr. Karam sees his Company as one of the three main suppliers of commercial simulators.  According to him, ‘In the world I think the market has recognized our capabilities, the fact that we have signed contracts with Boeing for the 737MAX and the 777X with Boeing shows that the market is endorsing us’.

In 2014, TRU was selected by Boeing Flight Services, known in the past as Alteon, to develop and supply the Full Flight Simulator (FFS) training suite for Boeing’s newest single-aisle airplane, the 737MAX, and two years later the company secured a 10-year agreement for a similar solution for the newly developed 777X.

The agreement includes the 737MAX FFS X simulators, flight and procedures trainers with 3D hardware components and desktop trainers Desktop trainer for use as a classroom virtual cockpit instructional tool.

The Boeing 737MAX program has reached the 2,000-order mark faster than any other airplane in the company’s history and now have received more than 3331 orders.
The first TRU Simulation + Training 737MAX FFS is expected to be ready for training in 2017. The new contract comes a little more than a year after Boeing commissioned TRU to produce an FFS for its Next-Generation 737-700 and -800 series airplanes which has been installed at Boeing’s Flight Services Campus in Singapore.

In March 2015, TRU Simulation + Training, announced that it has received purchase orders for three additional Full Flight Simulator (FFS) training suites for the Boeing 737MAX, part of the 10-year agreement between Boeing and TRU Simulation + Training. This new order includes three full flight simulators and three desktop trainers for use as a classroom virtual cockpit instructional tool. This brings the total number of training suites that TRU is producing for the 737MAX to four.

In April 2016 at the World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow (WATS) in Orlando, Florida, TRU Simulation + Training Air Transport Simulation unit has signed an agreement with Boeing to design and manufacture the world’s first Full Flight Simulator (FFS) training suite for Boeing’s newest twin-aisle airplane, the 777X.  The multi-year agreement also establishes TRU Simulation + Training as Boeing’s supplier for the full suite of 777X flight simulation training equipment.
The initial contract includes development, production and maintenance training for two flight training components, namely a Boeing 777X full flight simulator and a high-fidelity, flat panel classroom trainer.

TRU Simulation + Training will also provide a simulator to assist with Boeing’s engineering development of the 777X for which Boeing received until now 306 firm orders and commitments.

‘We are delighted with the continued trust Boeing is placing in our company, which clearly identifies TRU as a leading supplier in the flight simulation + training industry’ said George Karam.

The initial contract, with first delivery in 2019 or 2020, includes development, production and maintenance training for the FFS and a classroom flat-panel trainer (FPT) as well as an engineering development simulator.

Final quantity depends on the number of 777X deliveries.

On the defense side, Bruce Robinson, Director of Business Developement at TRU reminded that Textron through its training and simulation arm, TRU Simulation + Training, is part of Team Spartan (for the Canadian FWSAR) which includes leading industrial partners like General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada, DRS Technologies, KF Aerospace, IMP Aerospace, Bluedrop, ATCO, CMC Esterline, L3 Wescam and of course Leonardo Aircraft, known as Alenia before last year’s change of name, which built the C-27J Spartan in Torino in Italy.

Mr. Karam liked to pinpoint that ‘Our technology was of great interest for Alenia’.

Team Spartan is one of the three contenders pursuing Royal Canadian Air Force Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Replacement Project (FWSAR-ARSVF) which aiming to replace six aging De Havilland CC-115 Buffalo and twelve CC-130H Hercules. The Request for Proposal was closed on January, the 11th, 2016 and the name of the winner is expected before the end of this year or at the beginning of next year. The two others contenders are the Airbus Military C-295W and the Embraer KC390.

TRU Simulation + Training through its Lutz, Florida based Opinicus Division has provided Leonardo Aircraft the Full Flight Simulator (FFS) for the Italian Air Force which is located in Pisa, Italy.  This highly successful collaboration continued with the delivery of a fixed base C-27J FTD (Flight Training Device) Level 6 to the Romanian Air Force (RoAF) in Bucharest. Even it is not an exclusive deal, for the time being TRU has been the only supplier of simulators for the C-27J program. TRU and Leonardo Aircraft continue to work together to provide maintenence and logistical support for these C-27J Simulators as well continue to work together and explore future C-27J Spartan simulation and training opportuinites around the globe, such as working closely together on Team Spartan for the Canadian FWSAR.

Peruvian Air Force, another C-27J operator, does not have any simulator for this aircraft and has its crew training performed at Alenis in Pisa.  In the case of the US Coast Guard with six of its 14 C-27J delivered, is sending its crew in Pisa for training for now.

In case of the selection of the C-27J Spartan by the Royal Canadian Air Force, the training devices, one FFS, one FTD, both built in Saint-Laurent, one maintenance trainer, one sensor station, mission procedure trainers for the SAR Station would be located at CFB Comox in Kelowna, British Columbia in a yet to built 72,000-square-foot facility.

‘We have the experience and the track record for the C-27J and obviously the fact that we have a presence give us the ability to be close to the end user and add local content’ added George Karam.

The 20 years in sevice contract will be done by TRU people at the start and ultimately by filled by ten people hired locally.

Bruce Robinson underlined  that ‘The beauty is that we are able to leverage the experience that the organization has and be able to offer a Canadian solution’.

George Karam is predicting strong growth for TRU Simulation + Training and especially for its Air Transport Simulation unit, both from demand for commercial pilots based on the backlogs at Airbus and Boeing and a shift in military crew training from aircraft to synthetic devices to save money as defense budgets shrink.

In addition to aircraft deliveries and pilot retirements, new regulations on pilot experience, crew rest, upset recovery and stall training are expected to drive increased demand for commercial simulation and training, he said.

Next time, you will drive to Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, cast an eye on your right now that you know more about Québec Aerospace Best Kept Secret.

 

 

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