FlightSafety International announces that Edward Koharik has joined the company as Executive Director, Visual Systems.

“We welcome Ed to FlightSafety and look forward to his contributions as Executive Director of Visual Systems,” said Jon Hester, Vice President, Visual Systems. “Ed has over 23 years of leadership and management experience in transportation, logistics, military special operations, business development, and operations management. In addition, his proven ability to develop strategic relationships with government agencies and commercial transportation service providers made him the ideal choice for this important position.”

Ed will support the overall goals and objectives of Visual Systems. This includes working to further enhance the efficiency of operations and scheduling, managing long-term planning, and contributing to the design, manufacture and support of FlightSafety’s industry-leading range of highest quality visual systems and displays.

He recently retired from the Air Force and has operational experience in South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.  Ed has flown in support of combat operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, as well as Operations Southern Watch, Joint Guard, Joint Forge, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.  He served as a Senior Service Fellow at the Naval Post Graduate School and his staff assignments include Air Mobility Command and U.S. Transportation Command.  Ed was most recently the Chief of U.S. Transportation Command’s Enterprise Readiness Center.

Ed has more than 3,300 hours of flying experience on a variety of aircraft including the C-130 E/H, L-382, C-208, SF-340, and other special operations aircraft and was the first Air Force pilot qualified to operate the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Ed holds a Masters in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University and a Masters in Military Operational Art and Science from the Air University.

FlightSafety’s VITAL 1100 visual system offers unprecedented fidelity for a wide variety of uses with full flight simulators and a complete range of other advanced training devices. It significantly enhances training by providing highly detailed mission specific imagery and exceptional environmental effects. Pilots also benefit from photo-realistic imagery up to 40 -million-pixel-resolution, and wide field of views designed to enhance training. FlightSafety’s CrewView glass-mirror displays deliver the greatest level of realism with superior optical performance, and sharper image clarity. The true collimated images presented are free of visible distortions and artifacts out to mirror edge.

FlightSafety International is the world’s premier professional aviation training company and supplier of flight simulators, visual systems and displays to commercial, government and military organizations. The company provides more than a million hours of training each year to pilots, technicians and other aviation professionals from 167 countries and independent territories. FlightSafety operates the world’s largest fleet of advanced full flight simulators at Learning Centers and training locations in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.