Imagine cruising over Kazakhstan, along the Russian border, at 530 miles per hour in a loaded 300,000-pound KC-135 military aircraft during winter. Not an everyday experience. Soon there will be no need to fly halfway around the world to train pilots under such conditions. The same conditions will be simulated just a short drive up the Thruway at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. Dignitaries cut the ribbon on a new $5.2 million flight simulator facility Tuesday.
"We can program any airfield, any operating base, anything we want into the computer and it will simulate visually, as well as control field and all that - depending on temperature, winds - anywhere in the world," said Col. Brian Bowman, commander of the 914th Airwing.
"It's set up just like a cockpit of a KC-135, as well as the boom operator's station. That requires a pilot, a co-pilot and then, of course, the boom operator," Bowman said. "Then there's also an instructor and you can probably fit up five or six extra people in the simulator to observe what's going on."
Bowman said the Air Force recently changed the type of aircraft for the facility - from the C-130 to the KC-135. So, although the rest of the building is complete, the base is working with federal officials to install the actual simulator at a later date.
The KC-135's main mission is to offload fuel to other aircraft and it can carry a lot of cargo at the same time. Bowman said the aircraft also can be configured within a matter of hours to be a mobile medical hospital.
Once the simulator is installed, Bowman said it will not only offer state-of-the-art flight training for airmen across the country, but help solidify the future of the reserve station as a regional training site.
"Especially since we have lodging here (in Niagara Falls), we have food availability and we'll have the actual airplane as well, that's a very attractive option for a lot of KC-135 units," Bowman said.
