Simulator Design and Instructional features for Air-to-Ground Attack: Transfer Study

A transfer-of-training experiment was conducted to provide guidelines for simulator design and training procedures for air-to-ground attack. Two levels of scene detail (complex day scene versus a low detail dusk scene), three levels of field of view (160H X 80V, 135H X 60V, 103H X 60V), and three levels of simulator training trials (24, 48, 72) were tested in the experiment. Student Naval Aviators (SNAs) were trained in the Visual Technology Research Simulator (VTRS) in 30-degree bombing prior to their standard weapon training phase. Other students, not pretrained in the VTRS, were used for control comparisons. Training in the VTRS helped SNAs use their weapons flight time in the TA-4J more effectively. Forty-eight simulator trials were recommended as adequate pretraining for 30-degree bombing. There was no evidence of differential transfer for the scene detail and field-of-view factors. The least expensive field of view option tested was recommended. However, there were methodological problems with the scene type comparison and the apparent transfer equivalence of the two scenes may not fully indicate their relative training effectiveness. Data from other VTRS experiments suggest the superiority of the day scene and it was recommended.