DiSTI’s GL Studio Soars to New Heights

Jan. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- The DiSTI Corporation, a leading provider of advanced graphical interface technology, has announced that Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s experimental aircraft company and winner of the coveted Ansari X PRIZE for Space Flight in 2004, utilized DiSTI’s GL Studio to produce a comprehensive avionics systems solution for the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles, which Scaled is designing for Virgin Galactic, part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. To date, the GL Studio-based avionics displays have performed successfully on over 40 WhiteKnightTwo flights, beginning with the inaugural flight on December 21, 2008, and several SpaceShipTwo flights.

GL Studio was ultimately selected by Scaled Composites in 2006 after a competitive evaluation of display development tools. Of critical importance to Scaled Composites during the evaluation was the ability of a single toolkit to support prototyping, training and embedding. With the ability to meet these demands, DiSTI’s industry leading GL Studio toolkit was utilized to develop displays for the carrier, spacecraft, ground station, and flight simulator.

Scaled Composites’ decision to incorporate GL Studio throughout the entire lifecycle of their avionics displays showcases the unique design features and efficiency offered by GL Studio. Engineers with Scaled Composites employed GL Studio to rapidly prototype the complex avionics displays and seamlessly integrated them into the training simulator for extended human factors testing. The same displays were moved into the VMS Eve Aircraft and the VSS Enterprise SpaceshipTwo where GL Studio supported prototyping, testing, training and embedded paradigms for each vehicle.

The development of VMS Eve and VSS Enterprise represents the ongoing quest to develop the World’s first commercial passenger-carrying spacecraft providing private sector access to space, using an environmentally benign launch system. The VMS Eve Aircraft carries the VSS Enterprise Spacecraft to a launch altitude of over 50,000 feet. When released from VMS Eve, the VSS Enterprise rockets into space, providing occupants with a view of the Earth seen by very few and the opportunity to experience zero gravity. This launch system builds on the successful flights of SpaceShipOne, the predecessor to VSS Enterprise, which ultimately earned Scaled Composites the Ansari X Prize for Space Flight in 2004.

“DiSTI is honored to be an integral part of such a historic endeavor,” said DiSTI President Joe Swinski. “Scaled Composites is realizing the aircraft manufacturer’s dream and the vision DiSTI set forth for display development; one tool to streamline and unify the user interface experience from prototyping to training to embedded avionics.”

“DiSTI’s software has enabled us to meet all of our goals for avionics development thus far,” said Scaled Composites’ Avionics Project Manager, Peter Kalogiannis. “We evaluated many options in the beginning and found GL Studio to be easy to work with and the best fit for our needs.  Their software tools were instrumental to our success.”

The VMS Eve carried the VSS Enterprise on its inaugural flight on March 22, 2010. The inaugural solo flight of the VSS Enterprise spaceship was October 10, 2010. For more information, please visit www.scaled.com or www.virgingalactic.com.

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DiSTI is a global leader in the development of Human Machine Interface software for businesses, governments and the military. The company’s flagship product, GL Studio, enables programmers and developers to build high‐fidelity graphics, 3D simulations and fully interactive controls into their models, enhancing the level of realism and sophistication, while improving learning and retention.

More than 400 customers worldwide, including BAE, Boeing, Dassault, FedEx, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Raytheon and Thales, use DiSTI solutions to build maintenance trainers, create PC and Internet‐based courseware and to develop components for safety‐critical applications. As a full service provider, DiSTI offers a complement of customer programming and development services, and is the recognized leader in training solutions for the global simulation and training community. For more information, visit www.disti.com.