Pilots have to go through a lot of hours of training before being able to fly an aircraft. Before virtual reality revolutionized the industry, pilots had to train on replica cockpits and computer screens, however, it was nothing like reality. Not only it was not even close to reality but also they had to build different kinds of cockpits for the different kinds of aircraft and it was very expensive.
Virtual reality has completely changed the way pilots are trained. With VR, pilots can choose the aircraft they are flying, the location and also they can add technical problems or extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes. This way they are fully prepared to handle a wide range of situations. The VR experience must be as close to the reality as possible or else it may be disoriented and could be very dangerous.
There are two different ways VR interferes with pilot training. The first and less expensive one is with a headset and a joystick. This system is more portable and is especially useful for the military so they can train their pilots in different locations easily. The limitation of this system is that besides for the joystick and the pedal, the rest doesn’t exist physically and the pilot pushes the buttons “in the air” while the sense of touch is very important when piloting.
However, Go Touch VR, a French company created a product which enables VR users to have the feeling of touching the virtual objects and interact with them. They work with companies from different sectors such as BMW and Altran.
The second-way pilots are trained is with a full flight simulator. This experience is very close to reality as the pilots are in a cockpit with all the joysticks, pedals and switches and they don’t wear any headsets. What’s more, these simulators are in motion so when the pilot wants to turn to the right, the simulator moves as well. This experience is fascinating because when the aircraft crashes the pilot really feels the sensation of falling! These types of simulators are extremely sophisticated and cost around 15 million euros.
Check out the short video of Lufthansa’s full-flight simulators (Click the link).
Virtual reality has helped the piloting field make great progress in the quality of today’s pilots.
The Virtual Techy
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=76&v=3NJ8AoAEje4
Augmented reality and virtual reality are increasingly used in technology so knowing the difference is important.Related, but different. To know the difference between the two please take time to visit Virtual Reality Training.
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