JSF project puts virtual reality to its sternest real-world test.
Published:
15 October 1999 y., Friday
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.
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
More than a year after it first revealed its "separate but equal" integration partnerships with Microsoft and IBM, Siebel says progress has been made in both endeavors
more »
A group of eight Internet domain name registrars has filed suit against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Microsoft Outlines Policy and Technical Proposals Aimed at Helping Contain The Spam Problem, Including the Development of Caller ID for E-Mail
more »
Infobalt Association Starts OUTSOURCE2LITHUANIA Project
more »
British businesses are under siege by criminals and vandals using technology for financial gain or to cause havoc
more »
HP points new weapons against virus, worm attacks
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this month announced that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approved a computer language based on DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) as an international standard
more »
Microsoft denies it is collaborating with Big Blue on Office migration
more »