Commercial companies and government agencies are increasingly pursuing a more immersive and affordable alternative to conventional displays currently used in flight simulators. A NASA research project is working on ways to make this technology available for use faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mixed reality systems where users interact with physical simulators while wearing virtual reality headsets offer a promising path forward for pilot training. But currently, only limited standards exist for allowing their use, as regulators have little to no data on how these systems perform. To address this, NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley invited a dozen pilots to participate in a study to test how a mixed-reality flight simulation would perform in the world\u2019s largest flight simulator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time, we\u2019re collecting real data on how this type of mixed reality simulation performs in the highest-fidelity vertical motion simulator,\u201d said Peter Zaal, a principal systems architect at Ames.\u00a0 \u201cThe more we understand about how these systems affect pilot performance, the closer we are to providing a safer, cost-effective training tool to the aviation community that could benefit everyone from commercial airlines to future air taxi operators.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mixed reality blends physical and digital worlds, allowing users to see physical items while viewing a desired simulated environment. Flight simulators employing this technology through headset or a similar setup could offer pilots training for operating next-generation aircraft at a reduced cost and within a smaller footprint compared to more traditional flight simulators. This is because pilots could rely more heavily on the visuals provided through the headset instead of large embedded visual displays in a physical motion simulator.\u00a0<\/p>\n