SimiGon awarded 'prime contract' with Federal Aviation Administration

Modelling, simulation and training solutions provider SimiGon announced on Monday that it has been awarded a “prime contract” with the US Federal Aviation Administration, to deliver the ‘SIMbox’ simulation development tools and training in support of the regulator’s advanced unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) research simulator.

The AIM-traded company said the contract was a “significant milestone” in SimiGon's expansion into civilian vertical markets, including civilian aviation and civilian UAS.

It also established the FAA as a SIMbox Certified Organization, providing the FAA with an internal SIMbox development capability, the board reported.

The win also demonstrated the market's recognition of SIMbox as an effective research and development toolset for design and development as well as an advanced training system platform, SimiGon’s board explained.

“The selection of SimiGon technology as an R&D platform by the FAA is extremely significant and points to our evolution in the training industry, from military aviation to civilian markets and civilian UAS,” said the company’s president and CEO Ami Vizer.

“This underlines the strength of the SIMbox ecosystem that we have developed and its capability to support so many domains.”

SimiGon's SIMbox simulation engine and development environment system would be a major component in the FAA's Research Simulator, SimiGon said, and would support a “variety” of UAS research topics including human factors research and safety research within the FAA's Aerospace Human Factors Research Division.

SIMbox would be the primary interface used by the FAA in the UAS simulation environment, as well as a central repository for all components with the product's embedded configuration management capability.

The system development kit would be used to modify the simulation to meet respective research requirements.

SimiGon said the initial contract order value was approximately $100,000, and the expected revenue contribution from the agreement had already been factored into management's expectations for the year to 31 December.

“We are excited to work directly with the FAA to support advanced UAS R&D for the US Government,” Ami Vizer added.

“This contract win in the UAS arena is significant as the FAA completed extensive due diligence in researching SIMbox as the baseline software for its advanced UAS Research Simulator.

“We expect this agreement to generate further opportunities with the FAA and other government and civilian customers in the future.”