Has virtual reality taken over the traditional means of training (i.e., flight simulators)?
DE: My understanding of the traditional flight simulators is where you would sit in a simulated cockpit, and the cockpit would be a physical cockpit, so again, it would be made of wood and foam, and it would have the control sticks and so on. Then, what was simulated was what they call the “out-the-window” scene. So, you would look out the cockpit windshield, and you would see a terrain that you were flying over and the terrain and the targets or the friendly forces that you were flying over when you carried out your mission. The issue there is that every time you want to simulate a different type of aircraft, you have to change that physical interior that physical cockpit. It’s obviously very different for something like a helicopter vs. a jet or a transport. What virtual reality offers is the ability to have the interior be modeled just like the “out-the-window” scene is modeled in the automotive instance. So, now if you’re talking about having the interior being modeled, you’re able
