Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) recently reopened its Robertson Simulator Center after a complete overhaul that will bring new technologies, the latest in simulation, and new capabilities serving some 1,000 flight students at its Prescott Campus in Arizona.
Parker Northrup, chair of the flight department at Prescott, called the effort a “100% renovation of our legacy simulation capability” to enable new simulation technologies, optimize learning space, and provide scalable architecture that could accommodate a range of simulations from the most basic to a level-D flight simulator.
Adding to its inventory of cockpit procedure trainers, basic training devices, and advanced aviation training devices (AATD), the university plans to bring on additional RedBird AATDs, along with three more Frasca AATDs, which Northrup said will be full-motion-based platforms for student training in the university’s primary aircraft, including Cessna 172S Skyhawks and Diamond DA42-VI Twin Stars. However, space is also provided for the campus’ first level-D simulator, which Northrup told AIN is on a “longer acquisition timeline” but likely involve a regional jet that so many of its students will eventually step into as they embark on their airline careers.
But the key to these efforts is the advancements they bring in simulation. “All of the simulation devices in the building are either upgraded by the OEM or being replaced by new equipment to leverage advances in visual graphic generation, control loading technology (how the sim “feels” like an airplane), and environmental controls (for example, we included smoke generation devices to simulate a fire in the cockpit),” he explained.
The renovation also takes place as the university continues to forge new paths in areas such as virtual reality training and artificial intelligence (AI). Northrup said the training department has completed its experimentation with the adaptability and integration of VR technologies and is pursuing a full “fleet” of VR devices to fill the gap in devices such as desktop training and instructor-controlled simulators.
“VR supports our effort to completely digitize the flight training and learning environment,” he said, and will be connected to its “Prescott Synchronized Training and Learning Environment”—an initiative to collect comprehensive data to enable the center to digitally twin student training and tailor and adapt instructors as a result. Plans call for implementation of the VR capability in the third quarter of 2025.
The VR capabilities will build on lessons learned from the implementation at ERAU’s Daytona Beach, Florida campus. “We had the advantage of learning from their introduction of VR technologies to their environment, as well as the simulated air traffic control educational experience. We work together to ensure the high quality and caliber of training exists at both campuses.”
Rolled out in August 2021, ERAU immediately began seeing the benefits of the use of VR. ERAU College of Aviation assistant dean and chairman of the flight training department Ken Byrnes reported that the early results of the use of VR in its flight training curriculum had shown a 28% decrease in training time to solo. Students were “very prepared” for flight, he said, with significantly better radio communication skills—something emphasized during the VR training—and had lower anxiety as they began training.
Beyond the simulation and training advances, ERAU’s Robertson Simulation Center at Prescott also was designed to house advanced data gathering, storage, and replication of cyber technologies. Partnering with the College of Security, Business, and Intelligence on campus, the university can further its research in data analytics, trust protocols, multi-source data fusion, machine learning, and “narrow” AI development to support training, Northrup added.
The university already has other AI initiatives underway, including research to model and predict in-flight loss-of-control incidents at its Advanced Dynamics Control Lab. It is also used to teach flight students to communicate with air traffic control and other pilots.

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