Advancing the Adoption of Virtual Reality and Neurotechnology to Improve Flight Training

Virtual reality (VR) has been used for training purposes in a wide range of industries, including education, healthcare, and defense. VR allows users to train in a safe and controlled digital environment while being immersed and highly engaged in a realistic task. One of its advantages is that VR can be combined with multiple wearable sensing technologies, allowing researchers to study (neuro)physiological and cognitive processes elicited by dynamic environments and adapt these simulations based on such processes. However, the potential of VR combined with neurotechnology to facilitate effective and efficient aviation training has not yet been fully explored. For instance, despite the growing interest in including VR as part of the training programs for military and commercial airlines pilots, it is still unclear what the effectiveness of VR is in short- and long-term training of pilots. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art research in VR applications for aviation training and identifies challenges and future opportunities. We particularly discuss the potential of neurotechnology in objective measurement of training progress and providing real-time feedback during VR flight tasks. Overall, VR combined with neurotechnology for flight training holds promise to optimize individual learning progress.