XRHQ
United States
Defense

US Air Force trains aircraft maintainers with VR lessons built by its own experts

AI drafts each lesson from existing technical material and Air Force experts approve it; maintainer test scores rose from 25.6% to 98.6%.

Grégory Maubon

Added on
Virtual hangar containing a U.S. Air Force T-6 Texan II trainer with component workbenches and a schematic panel
Photo: Enduvo

Data Points (3)

This information is available to registered members of XRHQ. Sign up for free below.

Background

The United States Air Force's work with Enduvo began through small-business research contracts: the Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX funded a Phase I in 2018 and a $1.2 million Phase II in 2019 to build an augmented and virtual reality platform for training technical, maintenance, medical and engineering personnel. In October 2023 the service scaled that work into a $10 million enterprise-wide Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for the company's immersive learning platform, which the company said was at the time the only immersive virtual classroom holding USAF Authority to Operate and integrating with Air Force learning management systems.

The deployment

Under the IDIQ, interactive 3D courseware has been delivered across Air Force training commands and depot maintenance organizations. The subjects covered include:

  • aircraft maintenance
  • pilot training
  • egress
  • fuels
  • aerospace ground equipment
  • other technical specialties

Screenshots published by the company show the form the lessons take. A virtual hangar holds a full-size T-6 Texan II trainer with its fuel system exposed as a cutaway and the affected lines highlighted in red. Workbenches around the aircraft carry individual components the learner can inspect, and floating panels present reference photography, schematics and recorded instructor video alongside the 3D model.

How the lessons are built

The platform is an AI-native authoring tool rather than a bespoke simulation. AI generates a first draft of a lesson from existing source material; the subject matter experts who do the work then shape and approve it, without software developers or instructional design teams in the loop. Because authoring sits with the experts, a course can be revised and redeployed across the organization when a technical order changes, instead of re-entering a development cycle — which keeps instruction current and standardized across locations. The company describes the model as human-plus-AI authoring, with an expert shaping and signing off every draft.

Enduvo states that lessons are deployable across extended reality devices and can also be delivered outside a headset, on desktop and mobile. When the Air Force Research Laboratory funded the earlier phase of the work, an Air Force technical training NCO described the mixed-reality classroom as giving every student the same personal and consistent interactive presentation of the material.

Results

In a USAF effectiveness study cited by the company, maintainers training on the platform raised average test scores from 25.6% to 98.6%. Air Force subject matter experts can also keep courseware current as aircraft and procedures change, rather than commissioning new development each time a technical order is revised.

Contract status

On 3 August 2026 the company announced that the Air Force had extended the IDIQ by two years, through 28 September 2028, continuing the maintenance and technical training work across Air Education and Training Command and Air Force depot organizations. The original contract had been awarded in 2023.

Quotes

The Air Force doesn't extend contracts for promises; they extend them for results. Our job through 2028 is to keep making it more efficient for their subject matter experts to build and update training as aircraft and procedures change.

Project Summary

This information is available to registered members of XRHQ. Sign up for free below.

Experience

Available to XRHQ members

Software

Available to XRHQ members

Funding & Commercials

Available to XRHQ members

Sources

Available to XRHQ members

Know more about this project? Help us fill in any missing details.

Edit this project →

SUBMITTED BY

Grégory Maubon

AR consultant / CTO / Advisor, RA'pro

This write-up is free to reuse with credit — CC BY 4.0.