- Microsoft’s military HoloLens project wasn’t a total waste after all
- The US Air Force has found a new use for headphones in aircraft loading and balancing
- VR headsets can provide visual cues to indicate unsafe charging
Microsoft offered its HoloLens headset to the US military in 2018 as a battlefield heads-up display to improve situational awareness.
While the kit was capable of providing navigation data, building layouts, and firing ranges to soldiers, users complained of headaches, nausea, and eye strain during testing.
While Microsoft has since handed the project over to Anduril, some HoloLens headsets have found new life helping the US Air Force charge planes.
Balancing a plane from behind a desk
Outside of the Air Force glamor that movies like Top gun aims to portray, a big part of the Air Force’s job is logistics, and that means loading and unloading planes around the world. In the words of General Dwight D. Eisenhower: “You will not have a hard time proving that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.”
Now, loading a plane is one thing, but balancing it is another. An unbalanced load can disrupt all of the usual flight characteristics a pilot would expect from an aircraft that has flown for thousands of hours before, with deadly results. The problem is that airmen with the skills and knowledge necessary to properly balance an aircraft cannot be at all air bases at all times.
To solve this, the Air Force and Army teamed up to use the HoloLens VR headset to turn any soldier into a qualified aircraft loading expert from anywhere in the world; all they need is a HoloLens, a laptop, and a Wi-Fi connection.
The development and practical application of this new augmented reality is being used by the 724th Air Mobility Squadron, based in Aviano, Italy, which has been assisting the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, in the safe loading and balancing of aircraft.
Superintendent of the 725th Air Mobility Squadron, Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Sewejkis explained that he spent a year working with Microsoft to fix the software problems. “Now it’s plug and play. We can connect [from] anywhere simply using HoloLens, a Wi-Fi hotspot and a laptop,” Sewejkis explained.
A qualified aviator can now sit behind a laptop anywhere in the world and see through the eyes of the person loading the plane, pointing out any irregularities in how the load is secured or balanced in real time with visual cues through headsets.
While the headsets may not do much to improve the external reputation of the much-beloved Chair Force, the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing, parent of the 724th, said the technology helps “increase maneuver speed to maintain joint force lethality across the continuum of competition.”
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