JSF project puts virtual reality to its sternest real-world test.

Wearing a VR helmet and gloves, MSNBC_s Alan Boyle gestures in front of a screen displaying an image of workers servicing the Joint Strike Fighter. Boyle_s virtual hand appears in the scene. The high-tech warplane looms silently within a hangar. Two bombs lie on a cart, ready for loading. An olive-clad crewmate approaches me, but something seems wrong: His feet aren_t moving. Is this a dream? No, it_s reality ... virtual reality. I_m wearing a VR helmet in Seattle, and my "crewmate" is plugged in from St. Louis. The plane, the hangar, the bombs all exist only in cyberspace. This is how the world_s next warplane, the Joint Strike Fighter, is being tested even before it_s built. It_s not just a game: Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake for the twin giants of America_s aerospace industry. My encounter with the JSF was at the Boeing Co._s virtual reality lab in Seattle - with a cameo appearance by a Boeing technician in St. Louis. But Boeing_s rival for the JSF contract, Lockheed Martin, has established a similar setup in Fort Worth, Texas. Both companies hope that the skillful use of virtual reality - for development and testing of their prototypes as well as for training the future jet_s operators and maintainers - will give them an edge when the Pentagon names the winner of the competition in 2001. The JSF is being designed to serve as the strike fighter for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines, as well as Britain_s Royal Navy and Air Force. Three configurations of the JSF would replace whole ranks of models - F-16 Falcon fighters as well as A-10 Warthog assault planes, Harrier jump jets as well as F-18 Hornets on aircraft carriers.