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The master with his apprentice is a thing of the past
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Dreamliner pilots will fly on virtual training alone
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Boeings virtual scheme saves money on expensive simulators
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Boeings virtual scheme saves money on expensive simulators
The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom is at its highest since the early eighties with 7.9 % of the working population now picking up their giro cheque each week. At the same time 20% of 2011 graduates are still out of work.
Despite this, the traditional apprenticeship lies blooded, bruised and discarded by modern society. Its a word that conjures up romantic images of shoemakers, tailors, plumbers, and carpenters from decades gone by, but one that has no meaning for the children of the smartphone generation.
While a handful of artisans are still flying the flag for old-age apprenticeships, a next-gen form of apprentice is rising from the ashes of its predecessor, offering new opportunities for the children of tomorrow meet the virtual apprentice.
The overriding emphasis in the last 20 years on going to university and getting a degree has slowly killed off the option of becoming an apprentice or master craftsman. Instead, this void in British society has been filled by immigrants from abroad who are highly-skilled and can earn over double what they can in England than their homeland.
Yet the virtual apprentice is already helping train the next crop of pilots, surgeons, sportsmen and reporters, and there is no reason why this technological blueprint could not be used to develop and encourage more out of work Brits to consider careers in dying trades.
Flying without wings
British company Boeing announced the production of their Dreamliners almost four years ago, but last week the first fully functional plane was rolled out for Japans Nippon Airways. A lesser known fact about the pilots that are being trained to fly the worlds largest airliners is that during their training they never once set foot on a flight-deck, cock-pit, or even the airplane toilet on the 787 Dreamliner. All the training is done using an advanced four-part virtual schedule, from PC-based training, right through to a flight simulator.
The Dreamliner is the most advanced commercial aircraft ever made with fuel efficient engines, a complex airframe, and even dimmed windows at the push of a button. The unique virtual training ensures that any pilot who has flown a Boeing 777 can get up to speed in as few as five days, while a pilot with no experience in a Boeing plane will need just 22 days to master the 787. But no matter what your experience is, trainees will not set foot in the cock pit even once during training: everything is done electronically rather than with any written manuals, classes, or practice take-offs.
The main training takes place in a plain Seattle office block, where all pilots are put through their paces in severe digital crosswinds, headwinds, emergency scenarios, and take-off and landings. Training centres have already been launched in London, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai; with the virtual training software, pilots can literally train while hotdesking. This in turn allows airlines to save money on full-blown flight simulators that cost more than $10 million (6.45m) to purchase, and around $1,000 (645) per hour to hire.
With the PC-based software pilots can learn essential skills, before the final stage of training in the motion-based simulator that replicates the cock-pit of the 787. Known as Level D flight training, the simulator can re-create any weather condition, mechanical failure, or strange aerodynamic situation.
Every time you buy a 787 airplane you get points, Roei Ganzarski, chief customer officer for Boeing Training & Flight Services told Wired Magazine.
And with those points you can go online and choose any 787 training we have. We wanted all suites of training on a common platform. Once we make an update to one tool, all tools will be updated.
At the end of the schedule from PC based training, through to level D, a pilots first flight on-board the 787 will be with passengers, off the back off several four-hour sessions within the simulator. But dont worry too much if you find yourself in the company of a 787 virgin pilot: as a security measure, an experienced simulator instructor will partner the pilot on his first flight.
We throw everything from upset recovery to engine fires, engine failures, dual engine failures, says Captain Patrick Garrigan, lead flight instructor on the 787 program. It gets pretty exciting.
But it isnt just the aviation industry trialling virtual training. Formula 1 team McLaren continues to develop its simulation technology first launched in 1997 in order to improve safety, performance, and driver development.
The simulator is top secret, with only a small collective of people within McLaren having access to their prized technology and no one willing to discuss to the impact and detail of the machine, its officially off limits.
The simulator, based at McLarens Technology centre in Woking, famously help mould Lewis Hamilton into a World Champion in only his second season at the tender age of 23-years-old, but F1 fans at large are all still none the wiser on the technology behind it.
Hamiltons top secret simulator
Its not only helped Hamilton hone his skills but also helped the car giant engineer their latest supercar, the MP4-12C, released earlier this year. The 168,500 motor was moulded, tested, and built in a virtual word before a single piece of carbon was designed or moulded.
The fine-tuning of the engine, gearbox, tyres, aerodynamics, braking, steering, suspension, and safety were all-achieved through hundreds of individual simulated tests before production was given the go-ahead.
McLaren Chief Test Driver claims the car was put through invaluable testing with their secret simulator:
As well as working intensively on the driveability and feel at normal road speeds, you spend a great deal of time driving at or above the cars limit, so the ability to drive on the edge consistently and reliably in all conditions is essential.
While McLarens engineers and the next Lewis Hamilton benefit from a virtual grounding, surgeons are also learning first hand how to operate through virtual simulation before being allowed to operate on a patient.
Going under the virtual knife
Historically, the pupilage undertaken to become a surgeon has revolved around, seeing, doing, then passing on your knowledge and expertise. But now medical students at Harvard Medical School are being offered a new virtual simulator to learn their trade, meaning more students can get more regular practice before being involved in their first operation.
The technology works using touch feedback technology helping the budding surgeons hone their key motor skills, such as picking up small objects and knot tying. Dr. Neel Kantak, a first-year plastic surgery resident told CBS that the technology allows trainee medics to not be frightened of making mistakes.
I dont think that anything we do in surgery is natural, Kantak said. I think most of the movements are things people are not born with the coordination to do. When you make the right move, the tissue gets split the same way it would if you were in an operating room.
What the simulation lab allows us to do is develop the coordination, so when someone tells us, This should be your next move, you have the ability to actually do it with you hands. I think that the only way to get good at a particular surgery or doing a particular operation is to do it over and over again.
From Call of Duty to the front line?
Virtual training is even being used to train war reporters before going to the front line. A joint effort from ManiatyMedia, Arenamedia and Defiant Development developed videogame Warco that replaces your gun with a camera , and is working on a special training version for journalists training to head into war zones. While simulation and videogame advancements has already been used to aid soldiers going to war in Iraq, now its the turn for aspiring journalists.
The brains behind the idea, Tony Maniaty, told the BBC that the idea will be worth it if it helps save just one life. He said:
Surgeons have been training how to do operations with video games and interactive games are even being used to treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Its very common.
I would never say this game should replace proper hostile environment training but if we can save the lives of a few journalists itll be worth it.
The virtual apprentice is in his infancy, but the possibilities are endless. Where investment is needed in the short-term for it to penetrate other industries, in the long-term, virtual simulation could help train the a new generation of craftsmen and professionals in the future. Health, aviation, and the military are three industries that have the budgets to support the idea of the virtual apprentice, but local authorities and governments could help push the idea of the virtual apprentice into other sectors. In the long run it could be a low cost training option for the unemployed, and allow flexible hours.
If the concept is widely supported, we might just see the resurgence of the forgotten artisans who were once the backbone of British society. In the meantime, its time to put some time in on Flight Simulatorafter all, practice makes perfect.
