Helicopter flight simulators have now been in use in the Royal Navy for fifteen years. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of the helicopter within naval aviation, and in turn the development of the helicopter simulator alongside its actual aircraft counterpart. The uses to which the Royal Navy puts its simulators will be detailed, with particular reference to its most used simulator, the Sea King Flight and Mission Simulator. The expanding use of helicopters will be discussed, with a look at the Royal Navy’s present day aircraft, the Lynx, and its simulator. The assured future for flight simulation within the Fleet Air Arm will be explained.

Helicopters have been used by the Royal Navy since 1944, when four R4s were purchased from Sikorsky’s, and the change over of the Fleet Air Arm from an all fixed wing force to an almost totally helicopter force can be seen to be due to both operational considerations and political events.