An Army Pilot Just Re-Invented Flight Training for the Digital Era

A novel idea from an Army helicopter pilot could change the way pilots across the military and civil aviation advance their flying skills. It could even help commanders better select pilots for specific missions by integrating artificial intelligence into the cockpit. U.S. Army 1st Lt. Mahdi Al-Husseini, a helicopter pilot with the XVIII Airborne Corps, says that while airplane and helicopter designs have advanced steadily over recent years, in-flight pilot training has not. Virtual and augmented reality can help pilots see how well they are doing in ground simulators but there's no similar solution to record training data while pilots are in the air. Cockpits are full of instruments and indicators to tell pilots what's happening, but it's very difficult to collect and then later use that information to improve performance.