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VR simulators might sacrifice some realism, he said. They\u2019ll use digital renderings, and although they will have sticks and pedals, there won\u2019t actually be switches to flip. But they could prove to be a more engaging and effective trainer \u2015 and less tiring \u2015 simply because they\u2019ll be more fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople sit down in front of games for hours and hours,\u201d Vicars said. \u201cIt creates a sense of enjoyment. There\u2019s just something fun about it that you don\u2019t get in the legacy sims. There\u2019s this internal energy you get from experiencing it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the key things Vicars hopes the test will show is whether VR\u2019s immersive experience will lead to students performing better when they actually enter a cockpit. For example, will a student who\u2019s wrestled his way out of a dangerous dive simulation in virtual reality learn more about how his body registers fear and alarm in that situation, and as a result, react more coolly if he has a similar emergency in a real plane?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vicars acknowledges that this test might not work, but even if it doesn\u2019t, he hopes it will lay the groundwork for eventually making such technology ubiquitous in pilot training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoes the immersive experience equate to the performance of an airplane?\u201d Vicars said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking something very difficult of the technology, which is, make military pilots in six months. And that\u2019s a lot to ask. For the 1,000 reasons this technology probably won\u2019t work, we\u2019re hoping to find all 1,000, and fix them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program will include a mixture of VR simulations and actual flights in the T-6 trainer, Vicars said, and part of the study will be to determine what the most effective balance is between the two. Vicars said previous studies on legacy pilot simulations showed that students need to spend about 1\/3 of their time in the plane, but VR could be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the immersive VR environment works, students might not need to fly as much, he said. But some aspects of pilot training must be done in an actual plane, he said, so the study needs to figure out what those are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This technology could, for example, replace the so-called \u201cchair flying\u201d training procedures that pilots like Vicars used to do when they were students. When \u201cchair flying,\u201d students sit and look at a piece of paper mocked up with cockpit controls, and repeatedly go through their ground operations procedures, touching the \u201cswitches\u201d they need to flip, in the right order, over and over to build muscle memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in a VR environment, a student could use the VR headset to move his head around and look at the switches and run through that checklist. Sensors mounted on the helmet will monitor where students\u2019 hands move and register when they flip switches. Vicars said gloves would likely be too cumbersome when trying to control the stick and throttle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this study shows promise, other career fields could adopt VR training, Vicars said. Explosive ordnance disposal technicians could learn how to defuse bombs in a safe, virtual environment, or dentists could learn how to care for patients\u2019 teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This program first entered the public spotlight when a Nov. 30 email emerged from Maj. Gen. Timothy Leahy, commander of the Second Air Force, that said the program will provide data to Air Education and Training Command \u201con the potential for enlisted members to train to fly modern combat aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AETC later said that while the program includes teaching some enlisted airmen to fly, it isn\u2019t meant to create enlisted aviators. Enlisted participants would move on to their predetermined technical training after finishing Pilot Training Next, AETC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the interview, Vicars said his job is to study what the technology can do, and that the Air Force will decide whether to consider enlisted pilots. But, he said, the Air Force needs to look at different, non-traditional demographics to see how they learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis absolutely will broaden the idea of who can become a pilot,\u201d Vicars said. \u201cDoes that suggest that there will be enlisted [pilots]? I don\u2019t necessarily think that would be the conclusion to draw now, for sure. But we\u2019re certainly looking at how we broaden the talent pool in our selection and accessions domain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When 15 officers and five enlisted airmen convene next month in Austin, Texas, for the Air Force\u2019s new Pilot Training Next program, they could help create a cutting-edge method of teaching airmen to fly \u2015 one that uses advanced biometrics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality systems such as the Oculus Rift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,16,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3303],"class_list":["post-14425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KACMX2D72RHBDGJNAKQPPW7FRU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/01\/16\/virtual-skies-air-force-hopes-fun-tech-transforms-pilot-learning\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n