J.F. Taylor Delivers an MH-60T Flight Trainer to US Coast Guard

October 2007

J.F. Taylor, Inc. recently delivered and installed an MH-60T Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT) at the USCG Aviation Training Center in Mobile, AL.  Under this $2 million contract, J.F. Taylor designed and fabricated a new MH-60T simulator with high fidelity controls and displays and incorporated the Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) “glass cockpit” platform configuration.  

The Coast Guard’s fleet of HH-60J helicopters is being upgraded to the MH-60T configuration to economically maintain their legacy helicopter capability for the foreseeable future.  Approximately 80% of the pilot-to-machine interface is changing with the introduction of the CAAS cockpit and previously the U.S. Coast Guard had no part or full task training device for the new glass cockpit configuration.

“J.F. Taylor delivered the glass cockpit trainer to us prior to the aircraft configuration release,” said Mr. Chris Broxterman, Chief, Flight Training Systems Branch at the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center.  “This not only facilitates our initial pilot transition training, but also significantly enables the development of our new training curriculum and the validation and development of our flight manual changes.  Taylor’s engineers worked closely with us to stay on top of design changes that occurred to the aircraft platform while they were fabricating the simulator.”

In addition to hardware development, J.F. Taylor performed software upgrades necessary to properly interface the existing HH-60J OFT software to the Common Avionics Architecture System to produce the high fidelity CPT.  Utilizing this existing software in the new training device provided a significant cost savings to the Coast Guard.  Additional Coast Guard benefits from J.F. Taylor’s work include a highly maintainable device utilizing COTS hardware and software  to reduce the total life cycle costs for the device.

The MH-60T CPT provides a platform for curriculum development, standardization, transition, and familiarization training on the new mission avionics suite while preparing flight crews to operate efficiently and effectively in today’s operationally demanding environment.  Pilot and copilot training on the CPT utilizes active electric control loading for the primary flight controls, lower center console, main instrument panel, and overhead console.

About J.F. Taylor, Inc.

J.F. Taylor, Inc. provides engineering and professional services for U.S. military aviation programs.  Founded in 1983, the company’s core projects are in hardware and software systems, aircraft training and simulation devices, systems engineering, test support, and instrumentation of real-time data systems. The privately-owned company headquarters are in Southern Maryland, near the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, with offices/staff in Orlando, FL; Suffolk, VA; and Honolulu, HI.  J.F.  Taylor, Inc. is certified to ISO 9001:2000 with Design.

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Contact Lani Clark, Marketing/Proposal Coordinator, lclark@jfti.com, 301-862-4886