Work Begins on World's Largest Aircraft Fuselage Trainer

Several months ago, we made a post about a bunch of new contracts we booked, including one for "the largest fuselage trainer ever produced". The fuselage trainer (FuT) we were referring to is a C-5 Galaxy. CymSTAR, LLC is the prime contractor on this effort, with Newton Design, LLC providing all mechanical/structural design and manufacturing, as well as the facilities for trainer assembly and integration.

The trainer will be a combination of actual aircraft parts, such as the cargo doors, ramps, and nose section removed from a donor aircraft, and a simulated fuselage designed and manufactured by Newton Design.

These photos show removal of the tail of the donor aircraft, which will not be used on the FuT but had to be removed in order to gain access to aircraft components that will be used. Our VP of Operations, Tim Taylor, is leading the Newton Design disassembly team and is shown next to the tail in the second picture. Tim isn't a small person, it's just that the tail of the aircraft is that big!

This post is just the first for this project, future posts will provide more technical details about the trainer and the unique engineering, manufacturing, and logistical challenges associated with a project of this size.