A VIRTUAL DOGFIGHT

Aerospace Technology A VIRTUAL DOGFIGHT

The 1980s film classic Top Gun portrayed state-of-the-art dogfighting that captured the imagination of future pilots. If a sequel were made today, Iowa would make the credits. Iowa is leading the nation in developing the most advanced, next-generation air-to-air training systems. Collins Aerospace has been fielding and developing these nextgeneration solutions for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, and the University of Iowa has been a key enabler and test environment for these breakthrough technologies.

The expertise of Iowa Technology Institute Associate Director Tom “Mach” Schnell, who also directs and is chief test pilot for OPL, and others at ITI has been particularly valuable to Collins as military branches transition from live to virtual training systems. Collins turned to Schnell to help test the modernized Top Gun-like program called the Tactical Combat Training System or TCTS II. OPL’s team of faculty, student, and staff researchers and a fleet of jets, helicopters, Humvees, simulators, and other instruments are able to evaluate new systems, such as TCTS II, early in the development process.

Collins’s success executing high-tech solutions for the Department of Defense has benefited for years from a productive relationship with OPL. The OPL-Collins relationship is an example of how public higher education and the private sector can partner to address modern needs while creating jobs that our students can fill. The good emerging from healthy partnerships like this is indicative of the value of our public higher education system in Iowa.

SPOTLIGHT: OPL

The Operator Performance Lab, or OPL, is a world renowned flight test laboratory that conducts research on human-in-the-loop and intelligent autonomous systems to increase efficiency, interoperability, and safety.