Rotorsim, the consortium owned equally by CAE (NYSE:CAE)(TSX:CAE) and AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, today announced that it is expanding with the purchase from CAE’s Military business of a CAE 3000 Series full-flight simulator (FFS) replicating the AW139 aircraft.

The new AW139 FFS, to be delivered in 2012, will be jointly developed by CAE and AgustaWestland. The simulator will be qualified to Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators.

“The AW139 continues to enjoy great success in the global market for applications such as VIP/corporate transport, offshore, emergency medical services, law enforcement and other commercial and government roles,” said John Ponsonby, Senior Vice President – Training, AgustaWestland. “Our customers require cost-effective, high-fidelity training for their AW139 initial and recurrent training, and the addition of another AW139 full-flight simulator will enable us to meet growing demand.”

“CAE is a global leader in helicopter simulation and training, and with the launch of our CAE 3000 Series helicopter mission simulator, we are leveraging our technologies to offer both military and civil helicopter operators the same level of high-fidelity mission training previously found only in the highest-end military applications,” said Martin Gagné, CAE’s Group President, Military Products, Training and Services.

The CAE 3000 Series helicopter mission simulator features unprecedented realism for helicopter-specific mission training, including offshore oil and gas producer (OGP), law enforcement, corporate VIP and other operations. The simulator enables pilots to practice challenging procedures without risk such as low-level flight, confined area operations, autorotation and landing on platforms at sea. The AW139 FFS for Rotorsim will feature AgustaWestland-certified avionics and aircraft software combined with CAE core simulation technologies, including: CAE True six degree-of-freedom (DOF) electric motion system and high-performance vibration platform to replicate vibration cues critical to helicopter pilots; a high-fidelity CAE Tropos-6000 visual system; and a direct projection 210 degree by 80 degree extreme field-of-view dome display system.

Rotorsim was established in 2003 as a joint venture of AgustaWestland and CAE to provide classroom and synthetic training solutions for AgustaWestland AW109 and AW139 helicopter operators around the world. The Rotorsim training centre in Italy is located within the AgustaWestland ‘A. Marchetti’ Training Academy and already houses two CAE-built FFSs. These simulators feature CAE’s revolutionary roll-on/roll-off cockpit design, enabling cockpits representing the AW139 and three variants of the AW109 to be used in the two simulators. Rotorsim also offers training on a CAE-built AW139 simulator located at CAE’s North East Training Centre near New York City. Later this year, Rotorsim will begin offering training in Sesto Calende, Italy, on the NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH).