First-of-its-kind Technology Addresses Worldwide Pilot Shortage, Escalating Demand for Flight Schools and Urgent Need to Reduce Air Pollution
Loft Dynamics AG, creator of the world's first and only virtual reality (VR) simulator authorized by a major aviation regulator, today announced it has re-branded and raised $20M in financing. This is the company's first institutional round, led by U.S. technology investors Craft Ventures, Sky Dayton, and Up Ventures. The funding will accelerate Loft Dynamics' growth into international markets, particularly the USA. The rebranding from VRM Switzerland to Loft Dynamics positions the company for global expansion at a time when the pilot shortage has reached a crisis point and the need to reduce air pollution has never been more urgent.
Loft Dynamics is already serving customers such as Airbus Helicopters, Air Zermatt, Colorado Highland Helicopters, Helitrans Norway, Meravo, and Mountainflyers. Flight schools, airlines, fleet operators, governments, and aircraft manufacturers are queuing up for a better solution to pilot training. With fewer pilots coming out of the military, and the mass retirement of pilots during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global need for trained pilots has never been higher. Loft Dynamics delivers highly efficient, exceptionally realistic, non-polluting, and dramatically less expensive pilot training.
"When open-minded entrepreneurs apply innovative technology to a safety objective, large changes are possible in a short time frame. Loft Dynamics is paving the way for the integration of Virtual Reality applications in pilot training," said Patrick Ky, Executive Director and head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). "EASA looks forward to seeing the flight safety benefits of this as soon as possible, in line with the objective of EASA's Rotorcraft Safety Roadmap of increasing safety by 50% by the end of 2028 compared with 2017 figures."
1/10th the size, 1/20th the cost
Loft Dynamics replaces legacy flight simulators and makes training safer. Traditional full-motion flight simulators are expensive, giant apparatuses only available in limited training centers built specifically to house them. As a result, students are forced to complete most of their training in the actual aircraft, which is expensive and impractical for most aspiring pilots.
Over the past six years, the team of engineers and aviation experts at Loft Dynamics developed a safer, more accessible, and more realistic training alternative: a unique helicopter simulator combining a high-resolution VR system, a dynamic six-degrees-of-freedom motion platform, and a full-scale replica cockpit – in a package 10 times smaller and roughly 20 times less expensive than traditional full-motion simulators. What's more, it cuts air time training by up to 60%.
"At Airbus Helicopters, we are committed to pushing technology forward to enhance safety in training," says Christoph Zammert, Executive Vice-President Customer Support & Services at Airbus Helicopters, a Loft Dynamics strategic partner and customer. "The Loft Dynamics simulator allows pilots to regularly train the full range of normal, abnormal, and emergency procedures, in addition to all manner of weather conditions – safely and immersively anywhere in the world."
The "Real" Thing
Loft Dynamics' simulators provide pilots with a highly realistic and immersive flight experience. They combine panoramic views inside and outside the aircraft – from exact perspectives to precise colors, shading, vibrations, better visual cues, dramatically more realistic motion and sound characteristics of the actual aircraft. The pilot experiences the correct loads and force feedback from flight controls and is fully immersed.
"As a jet pilot, I have spent countless hours in traditional flight simulators, and unfortunately, I know their limitations," said Sky Dayton, investor and founder of Earthlink and Boingo Wireless, who is joining Loft Dynamics' board of directors. "I heard about this innovative company in Zurich combining VR with motion, and flew to Switzerland to see it for myself. I was blown away by the realism: I landed on a runway, and as the skids touched down, I could feel the texture of the asphalt. I practiced emergency procedures that would be extremely dangerous in an actual helicopter. Days later, I still had the muscle memory of the movements and vibrations of the real aircraft. Loft Dynamics is going to revolutionize pilot training."
A Modernized Training Platform
Unlike traditional simulators, the Loft Dynamics training platform provides tremendous flexibility for new modules, enabling pilots to train for what they will encounter in real life before they encounter it.
The flexibility of the platform means that in the future, emergency response pilots will be able to practice landing on every building in their city, firefighter pilots will fly the mountains where they will be battling wildfires, training and retraining muscle memory and reflexes. Mountain flying, night operations, weather and windshear recovery, rescue, sling load carrying – the possibilities to create and train scenarios are endless.
World's First Regulatory Approval
Loft Dynamics is the world's first and only VR full motion simulator qualified by a major aviation regulator, with European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) authorization in May 2022 as an EASA FTD Level 3 Flight Simulation Training Device (FSTD) for the Airbus H125 (developed in collaboration with Airbus Helicopters), the most popular single-engine turbine helicopter in the world, and the Robinson R22, the most popular piston helicopter. This means that pilots can train in Loft Dynamics simulators and receive credit as though in the actual aircraft. Full equivalency has never been granted to a VR system before.