Fidelity to support Navy flight training

Fidelity Technologies Corp. will provide classroom and simulation training for naval aviators and flight officers under a new five-year, $68 million contract with the NAVAIR Training Systems Division.

Fidelity of Reading, Pa., will provide flight instructors for the Navy's Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Texas. The training is coordinated through five training wings: Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.; NAS Pensacola, Fla.; NAS Whiting Field, Fla.; NAS Corpus Christi and NAS Kingsville, Texas.

The company already provides flight training to the Navy's Pacific Fleet through a separate, five-year contract. The new contract is the largest of its type in Fidelity's 20-year history, said J. David Gulati, Fidelity's president.

Instructors with Fidelity's Field Services Division will work with trainees in the first phase of aviator schooling, when they are taught basics such as wing dynamics and how to approach a runway. The instructors will run the curriculum in classrooms and flight simulators.

The Chief of Naval Air Training program trains about 1,000 pilots and 300 Naval flight officers each year. The pilot training program for college graduates takes about 18 months to complete, and the naval flight officer syllabus takes about 12 months.

Fidelity provides services and products to government clients in the areas of simulation and training, field support services, military and aerospace manufacturing, and meteorological products and systems.