Modeling the Adoption Process of the Flight Training Synthetic Environment Technology (FTSET) in the Turkish Army Aviation (TUAA)

The motivation for using Flight Training Synthetic Environment Technology (FTSET) in military aviation is to create a cost-efficient and a risk-managed training environment. However, deciding on the appropriate mix of synthetic versus actual flight training remains a great unresolved issue. Further, FTSET usage and its adoption level may vary across the aviation community and flight training curricula. Turkish Army Aviation (TUAA) has employed FTSET in helicopter flight training since 1990. Since then, it has exhibited three different FTSET support usage patterns, which include an initial phase of lower support rates until 1997, a substantial increase phase from 1997-2001, and a leveling-off phase, where growth stagnated, from 2001-2006. The author hypothesized that this sequential phasing can be explained in terms of the organizational culture in which the FTSET is employed, organizational changes that favor FTSET usage and increasing FTSET expertise in the usage, and the current FTSET's limited technical capability and sole support for one type of helicopter. To test this hypothesis, the author developed a systems dynamics model of the FTSET adoption process that has three interrelated sectors: Technology Improvement and Acquisition, Technology Adoption, and Technology Discarding. The Diffusion Model also is used as a framework to help explain the TUAA's FTSET adoption process from 1990 to 2006. The purpose is to understand this adoption process and to generate a policy for the current and future FTSET adoption process.
The original document contains color images.