Pedagogical Tools for Within Visual Range (WVR) Fighter Pilot Training - Another Step Forward

In many air forces advanced computer equipment is being used for after-action review and evaluation. These tools hopefully help the student pilot to understand his mistakes, but they neither give him a chance to immediately correct what went wrong, nor provide a view of what would have happened had he acted differently. Although some simulators provide some support to this end, the full potential of this concept is seldom used. Especially in combination with run-time analysis of the tactical situation—pedagogically presented to the student pilot—very powerful learning effects can be achieved. The Swedish Defence Research Agency, in cooperation with the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters, is currently pursuing the WVR Illustrator Project. The purpose of this project is to explore the enhanced training effects given by a suite of pedagogical tools. In addition, the purpose is to provide a test-bed for trying out new ideas regarding visual presentation of tactical situations. Ideas that pass the tests in the WVR Illustrator will be further evaluated in more complex simulator environments. Furthermore, this system is built using COTS equipment, resulting in a total project cost that is only a fraction of the cost of a regular fighter simulator system. The system itself consists of one instructor station and two pilot stations. Motion Trackers sense the pilots ´ head positions, and the virtual environment is presented to the pilots in Head Mounted Displays. This enables them to turn thei