ABSTRACT
Simulators are vital tools in transportation human factors. From empirical studies in the laboratory to the latest training techniques in the field, simulators have been offering benefits to researchers and practitioners across the transport modes for many years.
The story of simulators in transport begins in aviation, where they originally evolved as training tools that allowed aircrew to experience aspects of flight operations and systems without actually flying real aircraft (Stedmon et al 2012). The earliest flight simulators were developed in the interwar years as a cost-effective means of training military personnel when real aircraft were not available or were in short supply. This approach then migrated to civil aviation for commercial pilot training with the development of multi-million pound simulators that we are perhaps more familiar with and that are now used regularly for routine and refresher training.
