Firm wins pounds 60m Nimrod deal

A pounds 60m contract to build advanced flight simulators to train the crews of Britain's new Nimrod 2000 maritime patrol aircraft has been won by a West Sussex-based firm, it was announced yesterday.

The aircraft are to be built by British Aerospace for service early in the next century - to hunt submarines and surface vessels and carry out search-and-rescue mercy missions at sea. The simulators, from Thomson Training and Simulation of Crawley, will be installed at RAF Kinloss in Scotland between 2001 and 2004 to coincide with the arrival of the new Nimrods.