The use of new technologies in the design and development of F-16 maintenance trainers

The author addresses the successes experienced in combining new technologies in the design and development of the F-16 Avionics and Armaments Simulated Aircraft Maintenance Trainers. She describes the use of (1) a distributed microprocessor architecture to provide flexibility to accommodate evolving system fidelity requirements; (2) an interactive video display subsystem for presentation and selection by the instructor and student, eliminating the need for a CRT and keyboard and significantly reducing the amount of trainer hardware; and (3) a new simulation generation methodology which provides the capability of translating engineering block diagrams directly into source code. The use of these technologies has resulted in an integrated free-play training capability and reduced development time and cost compared with traditional techniques