Piper Aircraft this morning announced an order for 35 single- and twin-engine trainers from CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, the world’s largest ab initio pilot training organization.
The sale includes firm orders for 22 single-engine Archer TX trainers and 13 twin-engine Seminoles. Deliveries will start later this spring, with 27 of the airplanes headed to CAE Oxford’s flight school in Phoenix and the other eight going to the school’s location in Oxford, England.
The order is part of a five-year fleet replenishment agreement between the two companies that also makes Piper the “preferred aircraft provider” for CAE. Jeff Roberts, CAE group president, said the deal could grow to include additional orders as CAE Oxford Aviation Academy continues to modernize its fleet. All of the airplanes will come equipped with Garmin G1000 glass cockpits.
The airplanes will also be factory-equipped with CAE’s flight data analysis and in-cockpit video cameras. The recorded information can be replayed through CAE Flightscape Insight flight data analysis software, allowing students to debrief immediately after a training flight using flight animation with synchronized audio/video.
CAE Oxford Aviation Academy has the capacity to train more than 2,000 cadets per year across 11 flight schools on five continents. Training locations include Australia, Belgium, Cameroon, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
