US aviation regulators are turning to a small Swiss technology startup to rethink how helicopter pilots are trained.<\/p>\n
The Federal Aviation Administration will evaluate virtual reality technology in flight simulators for the first time, taking delivery of systems from Zurich-based Loft Dynamics, the company said Monday.<\/p>\n
The technology combines VR headsets with a frame replicating the control panel and cockpit of a helicopter, but at a scale significantly smaller than traditional full-motion setups.<\/p>\n
Two simulators \u2014 one to train pilots on Airbus SE\u2019s H125 helicopter and another for the Robinson R22 \u2014 have been installed at the FAA\u2019s R&D facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Financial terms weren\u2019t disclosed.<\/p>\n
The FAA often explores the use of new technologies in aviation and has extensive development programs, many of which don\u2019t result in commercial deployments.<\/p>\n
While this is the first time the regulator will review VR headsets as a training tool, it\u2019s for the narrow helicopter market and wouldn\u2019t apply to commercial planes.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the agreement with Loft Dynamics does not equate to certification of its tech in the US.<\/p>\n
The little-known startup, whose systems have been certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, has raised $20 million from institutional investors since December.<\/p>\n
Its hope is that the technology offers a more streamlined, lower-cost method for training pilots across multiple aircraft types and can ultimately replace training schools and instructor-intensive programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe helicopter is far more difficult to simulate so we have taken this as the higher benchmark,\u201d Loft Dynamics chief executive officer Fabian Riesen said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s around 20 times cheaper than\u201d domed simulators.<\/p>\n
Loft Dynamics has sold and deployed 13 units in Europe so far, with each requiring regulatory approval.<\/p>\n
VR headsets for the R22 would be a particular help for new pilots, not least because helicopters are even more\u00a0expensive<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 and can be more complicated \u2014 to fly than traditional fixed-wing aircraft.<\/p>\n The two-seat\u00a0R22<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0has a conventional piston engine and is widely used as an entry-level trainer.<\/p>\n The higher-performance Airbus chopper has a turbine engine and is flown by corporate operators, emergency medical teams, law enforcement and the military, among others.<\/p>\n The market for virtual headsets across consumer and commercial use cases remains small and nascent.<\/p>\n Meta Platforms Inc., the company formerly known as Facebook, dominated the market in 2022, accounting for 82% of sales, according to data from IDC.<\/p>\n But just 8.5 million virtual reality headsets were sold globally. By comparison, more than 1.2 billion smartphones were shipped globally last year, according to IDC.<\/p>\n Meta\u00a0cut prices<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0earlier this year for its premium-tier headset in part because of a lack of demand from commercial customers, Bloomberg has reported.<\/p>\n Riesen said Loft Dynamics is getting the hardware from third parties but is \u201chardware agnostic.\u201d<\/p>\n The current\u00a0headset<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is provided by Helsinki-based Varjo Technologies Oy.<\/p>\n The next phase is to expand the technology for training fixed-wing aircraft and electric vertical take off and landing vehicles \u2014 or eVTOLs \u2014 also known as flying taxis.<\/p>\n The technology combines VR headsets with a frame replicating the control panel and cockpit of a helicopter, but at a scale significantly smaller than traditional full-motion setups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":500635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[75696,87963,22313,87961,29210,82431],"class_list":["post-500619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-federal-aviation-administration-faa","tag-flight-training","tag-flying","tag-loft-dynamics","tag-virtual-reality-vr","tag-virtual-reality-headset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500637,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500619\/revisions\/500637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Apple Vision Pro\u2019s top strap might be sold separately<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"