Simulator gives Aviation Nation crowd some thrills
Disneyland doesn’t have anything over the Air Force when it comes to virtual reality simulators.
After 15 months in development and investing $1.5 million in a mission simulator, visitors to the Aviation Nation air show today and Sunday will have a chance to sit in the virtual cockpit of an F-22 Raptor flying low over the desert to clear an area for an attack on an enemy weapons facility.
It’s a lot like the Soarin’ Over California attraction at the Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, but the Air Force’s 14-seat, Rapid Strike mission simulator takes screen-projected warfare scenarios to a new height.
Instead of a hang glider soaring over the Golden Gate Bridge and buzzing fly fishermen standing knee-deep in Redwood Creek, the folks who board Rapid Strike get the whoosh and thrill of a special operations team parachuting out the back of C-17 Globemaster with a cargo of dirt bikes.
While the full-motion, high-fidelity video continues to roll, and the cockpit banks and turns, the team blazes over rough terrain to an overlook to locate the enemy weapons site from the top of a ridge. Then they call in a missile strike via satellite link to operators of a remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper.
In the blink of an eye, the laser-guided Hellfire missile tracks its way to the target and destroys it in a fiery explosion.
“Global Vigilance, Reach plus Power,” is the message that Air Force delivers with its newest recruiting tool.
“This is an inspirational event,” Col. Marcus Johnson said, describing the intent of Rapid Strike during Friday’s media preview of the free air show.
“We want to educate the public,” he said. “We want to show how the team can work together to meet an objective so young men and women can see that the Air Force has a lot more to offer than flying.”
Brig. Gen. John Horner said the simulator provides a cross-section of how airmen, pilots and special operation troops accomplish a real-world mission.
The recruiting investment calculates out to $150,000 per year over the simulator’s 10-year life span.
Johnson said in a hour, the simulator can handle about 75 people who watch the six-minute video.
The actors in the video are real pilots and airmen. For example, Maj. Rochelle Kimbrell, an F-16 pilot, 1998 Air Force Academy graduate and Iraq War veteran, does the voice-over for the F-22 Raptor segment.
She is convinced the recruiting tool “will do great.”
“You join because you want to do the mission,” she said. “And you see everybody’s cool role.”
Gates at the Aviation Nation open house and air show open at 9 a.m. at Nellis Air Force Base with the national anthem at 10:30 a.m. and flying acts by an assortment of historical and current warplanes from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The red-white-and-blue F-16 Fighting Falcon jets flown by the Thunderbirds air demonstration team anchor the show.
Parking for Aviation Nation is available at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where spectators can ride buses to and from the Nellis base.
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at
krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
