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Trainees take flight with help of mirrors

Xenia company’s newest  simulator will give Air Force pilot trainees the illusion of depth.

Staff photo by Ty Greenlees Dave Janke, Barco vice president of sales and marketing, talks about the benefits of the simulator, which is behind him.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Barco Inc. in Xenia has announced its latest simulator advancement that utilizes a collimated projection system reflected off a curved Mylar mirror. Installation technician Randall Perry sits Monday, Nov. 9, inside the simulator, which shows a pilot's view of an approach to landing on an aircraft carrier.

Staff photo by Ty Greenlees Barco Inc. in Xenia has announced its latest simulator advancement that utilizes a collimated projection system reflected off a curved Mylar mirror. Installation technician Randall Perry sits Monday, Nov. 9, inside the simulator, which shows a pilot's view of an approach to landing on an aircraft carrier.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 1:58 AM Tuesday, November 10, 2009

XENIA — The staff at the headquarters of Barco Inc.’s Simulation Division will tell you they produce simulators for the aviation industry and others.

But as soon as you step inside one of Barco’s simulators, you realize that what the company really makes are sweeping vistas that can impress the uninitiated with their beauty and complexity.

The company is showing off its new “collimated display” simulators to clients this week. “Collimated” displays arrange light so that pilot trainees can enjoy “the illusion of depth,” said Dave Janke, Barco’s vice president of sales and marketing.

In the simulator, a large mylar film mirror is stretched for a 220-degree field of view and arrayed beneath a rear projection screen. High-resolution digital projectors are arrayed overhead. Even on solid ground, “you have the true feeling of being on an airplane in every way,” Janke said.

The company has delivered three of the new displays to the Air Force for use as B-2 trainers. The price is “nominally” $1 million for equipment meant to be used with “full-mission” simulators that cost a total $10 million to $15 million, said Al Herman, Barco Simulation’s vice president and general manager.

The potential could be up to 100 collimated simulators sold each year, with the digital projectors built in Belgium — the company’s overall headquarters — and the optics and mirrors made in Xenia.

Flight simulation is about 80 percent of the Simulation Division’s business, and the U.S. Air Force is a significant chunk of that, Janke said. That’s one reason why the company is in Greene County, close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, home to the service’s logistics headquarters, where technical specs are issued and bids evaluated.

But the company builds for global customers, too. Barco currently is filling orders for customers in Israel, Europe, Japan and Russia.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.