Alaska Airlines will be buying full-motion Boeing 737 virtual reality (VR) flight simulators as a result of an investment by Alaska Star Ventures in Loft Dynamics. Alaska Star Ventures is the airline’s venture capital arm, and the airline will be the first customer for the Swiss company’s line of fixed-wing VR flight simulators, following successful certification of Loft’s VR helicopter trainers.

While Alaska Airlines uses VR devices now, these are for early ground school familiarity of basic flows and procedures, using VR headsets, according to Jeff Severns, managing director of flight operations training at Alaska Airlines. “We see these Loft Dynamics simulators as an enhancement and add-on to that solution, not necessarily a replacement.”

Plans call for deploying the Loft simulators at Alaska’s 737 bases and at the main training campus in Seattle, and these are expected to become available “in the next year or two,” he said. However, he added, “We are optimistic about the future of VR simulators in our training program; how they fit exactly is still in development and to be determined. We do not see a limit on anything we could train in these simulators, from basic procedures to maneuver-based training to line-oriented events. We will take a building block approach as we implement them into the different phases of our program.” The airline owns most of the full-flight simulators used for training its pilots and conducts training events with Alaska Airlines instructors.

An advantage of the Loft simulators is that they take up one-twelfth the space of a full-flight simulator, even though they have a six-degrees-of-freedom motion base. Loft VR simulators cost a fraction of the price of a full-flight simulator and offer a 360-degree panoramic view with correct visual cues, unlike the view that is limited to the projected images in the larger devices. The VR simulator’s motion platform adds force feedback to flight controls and haptic sensations of the aircraft. While wearing the VR headset, pilots in the Loft simulator can see their hand and body movements, for example, when reaching to actuate a knob or button. Avionics are fully replicated and match the functionality of the real aircraft. To help pilots learn and practice maneuvers, instructors can record immersive lessons that pilots can replay and then practice.

“Pilot training has significantly evolved over the past 30 years, from training solely in an aircraft to using full-flight simulators,” Severns said. “With the potential of Loft’s hyper-realistic VR simulator, we could be transforming commercial pilot training as we know it today. These VR simulators could provide a fully immersive, high-fidelity, data-driven experience that replicates real-world flight scenarios—all in a device compact enough to fit in a standard office. This accessibility could allow pilots to train more frequently and refine their skills with greater efficiency. We are committed to offering the most advanced training solutions available, including VR, and look forward to being Loft’s first fixed-wing customer.”

“With aviation safety as a top priority and a global pilot shortage still looming, this partnership paves the way for airlines worldwide to train the next generation of exceptional pilots more efficiently and effectively than ever before,” said Loft Dynamics founder and CEO Fabi Riesen.