Virtual reality | Future pilots trained using Apple Vision Pro at CAE

Virtually get laid with the Apple Vision Pro? This is what CAE is testing to improve pilot training, first for Bombardier’s Global 7500, then perhaps for other aircraft, in an anticipated context of a major shortage of commercial pilots.

Currently, the future pilot of a Global 7500 must follow initial training of approximately five weeks in one of the centers such as that of CAE in Côte-de-Liesse, in the district of Saint-Laurent. For pilots from all over the world, this means an extended stay in a hotel for training during which they will, at least initially, have to repeat gestures and procedures in fake steel cockpits installed in classrooms without windows.

The team of Érick Fortin, director of incubation for CAE, therefore wanted to improve this process by reproducing in 3D, in virtual reality and down to the smallest details the cockpit of the Global 7500. The application has been living for several weeks in Apple’s mixed reality headset, the Vision Pro.

Good reflexes

CAE is not in its infancy with this technology. The company has adopted Microsoft’s HoloLens headset over the past decade for training in the medical sector. CAE sold this subsidiary last October. Microsoft shut down its HoloLens division at the beginning of October.

The idea of ​​integrating mixed reality into training continued to germinate at CAE, and Apple, for its part, seems committed to mixed reality for the long term. Its headset, the Vision Pro, costs the same price as a HoloLens, but it offers more flexibility to the people at CAE, notes Érick Fortin.

Portability is essential for CAE, as is the clarity of the immersive environment. The cockpit of the Global 7500 has several dozen buttons, knobs, levers and switches, under which their names are often printed, if not their function, and all in very small characters.

“You have to be able to read all that normally with the headset,” continues Mr. Fortin. The headset must also faithfully capture gestures, so that we can manipulate the controls as if we were in a real cockpit. This is important for creating the correct muscle reflex. »

The application will be reserved for those training at CAE, but it could be added to the official curriculum, for different types of aircraft, or could eventually become public.

Identifying the controls using Apple’s Vision Pro allows, once in one of the large CAE Global 7500 simulators, to find the real controls much more quickly, since the environment is identical. This gain in efficiency and assurance for the future pilot is what CAE is seeking by adopting this technology.

Shortage and growth

Virtual reality will not increase CAE’s real profit margin in the very short term. Its addition to the training tools will perhaps one day attract future pilots to one or other of the 70 training centers that the Montreal company has around the world.

This could be crucial for CAE’s revenue growth, which has been under pressure since the end of the pandemic. The company has lost 30% of its stock market value since the end of 2021. Contracts in the defense sector and civil aviation are expiring in the coming months, representing opportunities to improve profitability of the company in the medium term.

CAE management is still promising improvement in its net profit growth somewhere towards the end of its current financial year.

In the longer term, CAE still anticipates increased demand for new pilots in civil aviation, after a few years of stagnation. CAE believes that it will be necessary to train 260,000 new pilots within 10 years to support the growth of international civil aviation.

In this context, it is not surprising to see the company looking for new ways to train future pilots more quickly. “We are looking for solutions that will have a significant impact on pilot training,” explains Érick Fortin. To date, this new technology is well received by new pilots, and even existing pilots appreciate it. »