Noisy helicopter training flights over south Oxfordshire are set to become a thing of the past, thanks to new high-tech equipment.

State-of-the-art computerised flight simulators are set to make many training flights around RAF Benson redundant.

And the RAF says the benefits will be felt around the county with quieter nights and less nuisance to residents.

The new training centre, expected to be up and running next summer, will feature six hi-tech helicopter flight simulators which can be linked together for special exercises.

It is being built through a private finance initiative, described by the RAF as the first of its kind.

Although it is on MoD property, the centre will be owned and managed by a private business consortium, which will charge the RAF to use it. Flt Lt Karen Howells said: "This is a first. The completion of the facility will signal a new era for support helicopter training in the RAF and for RAF Benson in particular.

"Not only will it provide the RAF with state-of-the-art training and teaching facilities, but it will mean that a considerable amount of helicopter flying currently required to train air crew will in future be carried out quietly in the confines of the building.

"Nuisance caused to local residents - particularly from night flying - will reduce.

"Hopefully complaints will go down."

She said pilots undergoing training at RAF Benson were also set to gain from the new technology.

"They will get more hours as it can be done at any time of day and it doesn't matter what the weather is like," she said.

Villagers living near the base welcomed the prospect of fewer helicopter flights over their homes.

Neil Blake, of Ewelme Parish Council, said: "I think the flight simulators are an excellent idea.

"They will make a substantial difference to the training pilots will get and take many routine training flights out of the air.

"They will have to fly in the air as well, to know what it is really like but it should take a substantial number of flights away."

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