Textron firm readies training academy for October opening

A Textron-owned company plans to open its first Wichita aircraft maintenance training facility next month.

Tru Simulation Plus Training is opening the 35,000-square-foot center at the Textron Aviation West Campus, near Wichita Eisenhower National Airport.

The Tru Aircraft Maintenance Academy includes classrooms and a flight line hangar, and can serve more than 1,000 aircraft maintenance training students annually, according to information provided by the Textron Inc. subsidiary to The Eagle.

It will receive its first class of students in early October.

They will train on new production Beechcraft King Air 350i and extended-range turboprops outfitted with Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics, Tru Simulation said. In mid-October, Tru Simulation will offer a second course for avionics technicians training on the same aircraft.

Training in the first year will be focused on King Airs with the Pro Line Fusion avionics, including 250 and C90GTx models, and all current McCauley propellers. McCauley also is owned by Textron.

In 2017, it will add maintenance training on all current production Cessna aircraft.

Tru Simulation said the four groups of students it expects to serve will be Textron Aviation engineers and service center employees, buyers of new Textron Aviation aircraft, private fleet owners and operators and, in the future, defense customers.

The academy will open with “a few, full-time instructors,” the company said. Those instructors will be certified airframe and powerplant mechanics or have Federal Communications Commission communication licenses. They also will have at least five years of experience on each aircraft type they will teach on.

Tru Simulation plans to add instructors as the academy’s offerings grow. It expects to maintain an average ratio of one instructor to eight students.

South Carolina-based Tru Simulation was formed last year after Textron acquired three businesses: Mechtronix, Opinicus Corp. and a portion of the former AAI Logistics and Technical Services.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Textron firm readies training academy for October opening."