A college undergrad’s VR start-up will provide VR maintenance training to the military.
VINCI VR, a VR start-up founded by 22-year-old Eagle Wu specializing in immersive maintenance training solutions, has just been awarded a $1M contract to provide the United States Air Force with virtual maintenance training technology.
Working alongside Air Force technology accelerator AFWERX, VINCI VR will provide the military with new forms of immersive simulations designed to train airmen in aircraft maintenance and upkeep.
“This is an exciting milestone for VINCI, ” says Eagle Wu in an official release. “This is a great opportunity to push VR software forward and pioneer the adoption of this technology on a wider scale.”
“By utilizing VINCI’s technology with hundreds or thousands of airmen, the Air Force can ensure they have the most up to date training even with a lack of available aircraft, bringing modern-day training to better instruct future airmen,” added Sean Smith, a USAF Instructor for Instruments and Flight Controls.
“VINCI’s Virtual reality software will modernize our instructional guidance and bring new aircraft real-time training to the students which will increase their system knowledge/retention and demonstrate day to day practices. Our schoolhouse instructs 530 students annually and teaches 23 different airframes. VINCI will help bridge the gap between what we teach and the aircraft we have available. Ultimately, this increases their combat readiness when the airmen arrives to their duty station.”
Built with the intent of providing a flexible, easy-to-use immersive experience to clients, VINCI’s technology will allow the Air Force to effectively educate thousands of airmen in aircraft maintenance at a fraction of the cost of real-world training. Using highly-accurate interactive 3D models of real-world aircraft, VINCI technology removes the need for physical crafts in which to train on; an often expensive and inconvenient procedure.
Using VINCI’s CODEX editing platform, instructors can even create their own immersive training experiences without the need of any prior development or programming experience. You can learn more about VINCI VR’s aircraft maintenance training solution by checking out Eagle’s official case-study.
Of course, VINCI VR is just the latest in a series of companies tapped by the US military to develop immersive training solutions.
This past July we learned that the Pentagon has been experimenting with VR/AR technology to train warfighters for potential nuclear warfare. In August it was revealed that the US Navy has begun using Magic Leap headsets to keep soldiers combat-ready while at sea.
Feature Image Credit: VINCIVR, US Air Force
