L3 Commercial Training Solutions (L3 CTS) is a flight training provider and manufacturer of civil

flight simulators A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

based in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

, England. It is a subsidiary of American simulator manufacturer L-3 Link Simulation & Training, itself part of

L3 Technologies L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products, ...

, and was formed as L-3 Link Simulation & Training UK in 2012, when L3 acquired the civil

fixed-wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct ...

simulation division of

Thales Training & Simulation Thales Training & Simulation Ltd. is a multinational company which manufactures simulators, including full flight simulators and military simulators, and provides related training and support services. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Th ...

(TTS).

History

L3 CTS was incorporated in 2006 as "L-3 Communications Group Limited", acting as holding company for the L-3 group in the United Kingdom. In 2012, when TTS was partially acquired, the company's name was changed to "L-3 Communications Link Simulation and Training UK Limited" (L-3 Link UK). In May 2015, the subsidiary L-3 CTC was formed, following the acquisition of British flight training provider CTC aviation, and in July 2016, L-3 Link UK and L-3 CTC were consolidated into L3 Commercial Training Solutions. L3 CTS and TTS are still co-located on the same site in

Manor Royal Manor Royal is an industrial zone within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Manor Royal is in the north of the town near to Gatwick Airport. The area is devoted to light industry and offices and was designed for industry as part of t ...

, Crawley, and share the same ancestry, rooted in the US simulation business created by

Ed Link Edwin Albert Link (July 26, 1904 – September 7, 1981) was an American inventor, entrepreneur and pioneer in aviation, underwater archaeology, and submersibles. He invented the flight simulator, which was called the "Blue Box" or "Link Trai ...

in the 1930s and in the British simulator manufacturer Redifon (later Rediffusion). Recently, L3 Airline Academy has been granted the contract to train the RAF (Royal Air Forces) Multi Engine Aircraft pilots.

Products and services

L3 CTS's core product is the RealitySeven line of

full flight simulator Full flight simulator (FFS) is a term used by national (civil) aviation authorities (NAA) for a high technical level of flight simulator. Such authorities include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States and the European Avia ...

s, which covers a wide range of aircraft types: from turboprop ATR72 to single-aisle Embraer E2,

A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

and wide-bodies Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Boeing 777,

Boeing 787 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...

and Airbus A330,

A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 w ...

and Airbus A380. A major part of the business is also the provision of flight training services, including cadet selection, ab initio training and airline training, both in the UK and in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

, Thailand, through the controlled Asian Aviation Training Center, which was acquired as part of the TTS deal.

References

External links

Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:L3 Commercial Training Solutions Companies based in Crawley L3Harris Technologies