Hughes to Buy Honeywell’s Flight Training Division

Hughes Aircraft Co. said Tuesday that it had agreed to buy the flight training division of Honeywell Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

The planned acquisition of the training and control system division, headquartered in West Covina, is part of Hughes’ strategy to become a major player in the training and simulation industry.

Hughes, a subsidiary of General Motors, has created a Hughes training systems division and earlier this year purchased Rediffusion Simulation, which supplies passenger airlines with electronic flight simulators for pilot training and is a major manufacturer of military flight simulators in Britain.

“As defense budgets flatten out, we expect simulators to be used increasingly by military customers to train pilots and other systems operators,” said Hughes Chairman Malcolm R. Currie in a statement. “This acquisition is another step in the implementation of our strategic plan to increase our share of the worldwide training and simulation business.”

The Honeywell training division employs about 1,000 workers involved in manufacturing flight simulators for the military as well as other types of training systems for American aerospace firms. Minneapolis-based Honeywell said it was selling the division because it no longer fit into its long-term strategy.

Hughes offices on Tuesday were closed for the holidays and executives were not available for further comment.

Hughes estimates that the demand for training and simulation equipment from military and civilian customers will boost annual industrywide sales to $4 billion in five years from the current $3-billion level. The aerospace company also expects that simulation technology will be heavily used in other fields, like machine repair and complex team training systems.