Military training and exercise budgets are continually challenged. Training airtime cannot be afforded at a level consistent with the desires of our fighting troops. The next best training method is simulation, allowing the aircrew to manipulate equipment as close to the "real thing" as possible. The drawback is the expense of high-fidelity simulators in fixed facilities constrained by rigid training schedules.

An avenue now open to exploration is leveraging use of the actual aircraft as a simulation device, either in the hangar or on the ramp. One approach being pursued by Lockheed Martin in an ongoing Internal Research and Development (IRAD) project allows a powered-down aircraft cockpit to be transformed into a simulated training environment. This would permit a simulator training capability to be taken into the field with the warfighter, and do much to advance the state-of-the-art in cost-effective, deployable simulation training.

The research centers around combining a minimal amount of equipment: a COTS high-fidelity helmet-mounted display (HMD), commercially available "blue screen" video-mixing equipment, blue window placards, and a commercial image generator, along with several custom enhancements. By covering the cockpit windows and instrument faces with a blue material, images can be mapped and registered to specific cockpit locations. This results in a layered image of computer-animated instruments as well as out-the-window (OTW) scenery displayed through the HMD. Plans for CY97 include the addition of a VEDS data glove to permit the manipulation of aircraft switches and knobs in the training exercise. The cockpit can be mapped as a 3-D environment and through use of glove-tracking sensors, switches can be selected in the virtual simulation. This paper describes results to date.

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Andrew Gurcak