Aviation Enthusiasts Ponder: How Good Are PC Simulators?

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 01 November 2001
• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

It has been by now widely reported that the hijackers who committed the deadliest terrorist act in U.S. history acquired some of their aviation skills in flight simulators.

To what degree the hijackers were able to only rely on simulators to learn how to steer multi-engine jets and how to operate the transponders still remains uncertain. But the fact that flight simulators became useful tools for terrorists has stirred debate within the industry as to how much flying can really be learned in computer-based trainers.

Major airlines own and operate sophisticated flight simulators, which cost millions of dollars. Professional flight schools also have simulators. At least two of the hijackers trained on a Boeing 727 simulator facility, in South Florida.

But PC-based simulators are so advanced today, experts contend, that it would not be unreasonable to expect that someone could learn how to operate the instrumentation of a large jet by using off-the-shelf technology, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Microsoft Corp. announced in mid-September that it would delay the release of the 2002 version of its popular Flight Simulator, because it needed to remove the World Trade Center from the virtual New York landscape that was built into the program.

A veritable cottage...