Early Virtual Reality Simulators for the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Navy

Abstract

During the Second World War, realistic training was a necessity, but visualisation of the battle space was usually passive with terrain models and photo mosaics. Simulators for pilot training concentrated on instrumentation and controls. Fit Ups (of Manchester), a theatre scenery manufacturer and lighting dealer, used their expertise in creating illusion to adapt the Link Trainer, an early American flight simulator, for torpedo training. The trainer was initially enclosed within a static screen with a crude painted landscape to increase realism. After 18 months of development, in 1942, a Torpedo Attack Teacher (TAT) was created at a Fleet Air Arm Station in Scotland. The first TAT consisted of a Link Trainer configured as a Fairey Barracuda torpedo bomber enclosed in a 300° screen within which atmospheric and lighting effects and a realistic target ship were created. Both the planes’ track and the target ship’s path were recorded on a map. A sophisticated projector enabled the target to turn, move and grow larger as the plane approached. When a torpedo was dropped, the target and torpedo paths were calculated and a hit or miss indicated to the student pilot. Following the success of the prototype, the navy extended the technology, and TATs were developed for destroyers and Motor Torpedo Boats, submarines and an Operational Crew Trainer. This combined the terrain map with the interactivity of a simulator to train spotting for shore bombardment. Over 60 TATs were constructed in the UK, USA and British territories, for the Navy and the Royal Air Force. Some continued in use postwar, although attempts at developing an export market were of limited success.