Air Force Reserve squadron scans its new helicopter to build VR maintenance training

The 908th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, an Air Force Reserve unit at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, hosted the XR training contractor Mass Virtual from 2 to 11 June 2025 for the first knowledge-capture visit behind an extended-reality maintenance trainer for the MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter.

The Mass Virtual crew used a LiDAR scanner and a photogrammetry scanner to build accurate 3D geometry of the airframe and its components, and recorded photos, video, 3D video and audio of maintainers performing tasks. Master Sgt. Jason Gessler, the squadron's head maintainer on the project, narrated each procedure so the recordings carry both the actions and the explanation. Nineteen of 44 maintenance procedures were captured on this visit, from changing a rear tire to attaching a tow bar and taxiing the aircraft.

The finished trainer is to be delivered through the Integrated Technology Platform, an Air Education and Training Command programme that Mass Virtual supplies, so that reservists who are not hands-on every day can rehearse procedures without taking an aircraft off the flying schedule.

As of the source reporting, the trainer had not been fielded. Maxwell Air Force Base was described as one that "will soon be added" to the 135 DoD installations already using the platform, and the Grey Wolf as the 32nd Air Force aircraft to be added to the virtual hangar. Mass Virtual's lead 3D art generalist said a familiar airframe usually takes about six months to build out and that a first-of-type helicopter would take longer. No later source found confirms the trainer is in use.

Quotes

“Every time that we touch this aircraft, if we do not do it correctly, there are other people's lives at stake. The more training avenues that we have, outside of just being on the aircraft, the better for us, especially for our reservists that do not get to be hands on every day.”

“The VR trainer will be very helpful in training future maintainers by giving them access to a form of the aircraft so they can get comfortable without feeling scared to touch a real aircraft, and get comfortable enough to actually do the job the way that they need to.”

“Planes are pretty easy for us to do because we've done so many of them, so it's a whole new challenge to capture a helicopter, but it's pretty fun.”