The spanish Air Forces and Indra to market Alcantarilla's parachuting simulation centre

The Air Forces signed an agreement with Indra, the IT premier multinational in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe to co-manage the commercial exploitation of its Parachuting simulation centre in Alcantarilla (CESIPAL), Murcia in a public private partnership (PPP). This way, the Air Forces markets the time the systems are idle to foreign air forces and professional parachutists in order to promote the activity in the civil sector.

The agreement is within the Phoenix project, a proposal by the Air Forces’ Logistics support command in 2005 with the objective of transforming and modernising its systems; as well as making profitable surplus capacities by means of outsourcing and cooperation with the industry.

Essentially Indra supplies its commercialization network as well as its capacities in order to make the most of the centre by commercialising its facilities when unused by the Air Forces. The company uses its commercial structure to contact and close deals with foreign armies, parachute clubs, private companies at national and international levels. Its international projection and knowledge of simulation facilitate detection of opportunities and customer service not only in Europe but also across the world.

Wind tunnel

The service includes use of facilities with a state-of-the-art wind tunnel, where users practice jumps and movements which will be performed in the air later, only in the wind tunnel the conditions and sensations will be similar as if it the jump were real.

At CESIPAL, parachutists train in a controlled environment, avoiding the risks that real jumps imply and their mistakes are corrected by a trainer. The tunnel has room for four parachutists at the same time.

Each session lasts a maximum of two minutes since the activity is exhausting. The time is far higher than that employed in real jumps. Weather conditions do not hinder training and disposal of a plane is not a difficulty. Moreover, using planes makes the activity more expensive and reduces the frequency of the training.

The centre also has a simulation system that consists of a harness that lifts the jumper and virtual vision glasses that show the scenario. This system is used to try out emergency procedures and open parachute descent which complete the training. The system can reproduce jump scenarios from any part of the world, under any weather conditions or time of the day: night or daylight.

The centre is also equipped with a jump tower simulator and a descent simulator to practice jumps with automatic parachute release, where the parachute opens with a ripcord fixed to the airplane.

The agreement between the Air Forces and Indra is one of the first cooperation experiences of the Armed Forces with a non-defence company to market surplus. This initiative provides a complementary financing scheme at the same time it makes the most of its facilities. Indra strengthens its relationship with the Armed Forces by contributing with its well-known experience in outsourcing non-defence companies processes of different sectors to the defence area. To accomplish this task, the company makes the most of its profound knowledge and leadership in the sector in Spain.

Indra is Spain’s first IT multinational and one of Europe and Latin America’s most important. It is the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation and it is also the second Spanish company with more investment in I+D. In 2007, revenues exceeded € 2,167M; a third part of it came from the international market. The company employs more than 24,000 professionals and has developed projects in more than 90 countries.