Current problems of flight simulators for research

Barnes has said ‘simulation is like a meal in a restaurant —more depends on the way it is prepared and served than on the basic ingredients'. We know a good deal about the ingredients, the hardware, of the simulator meal but we are not yet particularly good cooks. The lore of cooking has largely been obtained by ad hoc experiments, and at its highest expression is an art; the same is still true, in the main, of simulation techniques. Simulation should come of age. The precocious youngster grew up relatively undisciplined using the sledge-hammer of technology in an endeavour to produce a ground-borne aeroplane, with little science used in identifying the requirements.