The Hangar
- Brand
- U.S. Air Force
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Lead Gen & Recruiting
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Wildlife
Objective
Air Force Recruiting Service was running short on aircraft maintainers, and its target recruits — teens and young adults who are confident with a controller but not a wrench — weren't converting off TV spots. Rather than advertise the maintainer job, the Air Force and agency GSD&M built a way to let that audience try the work with their own hands, at the races and shows where they already gather, and collect leads on site.
Solution
Visitors check in at a registration tent and strap on an RFID wristband that tracks them through six stations inside two trailers joined under a curved canopy shaped like an aircraft hangar. On an iPad, they tap through an AR teardown of a full-size jet engine, pulling parts apart to see how they fit. Nearby, they reach into thin air to patch a V-22 Osprey's hydraulics using hand tracking, then put on a HoloLens inside a mock F-16 cockpit to read the avionics and call out a diagnosis. Outside, they race a clock torquing bolts to swap a C-130 wheel against a leaderboard of the day's fastest times, and wave in a full-size F-35 model using real flight-deck hand signals. The run ends in a VR pod, taking the seat of an aerial refueling boom operator to guide a fuel line into a jet, before a recruiter steps in to talk.
- 1
At events that draw hands-on crowds (NASCAR, Formula Drift, Nitro Circus, airshows), the player approaches two 39-foot trailers joined by a curved canopy styled as an Air Force hangar, signs up at the entrance, and receives an RFID wristband that tracks results across the stations inside.
- 2
At the first station, the player points an iPad at a full-size jet engine; markers on the engine let the app overlay AR visuals of the turbine, gearbox, afterburner window, and particle airflow onto the real hardware.
- 3
At a hydraulics station, hand-tracking (Leap Motion) lets the player work bare-handed in the air to repair a hydraulic system inside a virtual V-22 Osprey.
- 4
At an avionics station, the player sits in a replica F-16 cockpit wearing a HoloLens headset; holograms overlay the physical instrument panel and HUD prompts direct which physical switches and buttons to press to run a diagnostic sequence.
- 5
In the Tire Change Challenge, the player uses a tool on a pressure-sensor-equipped nut on a C-130 wheel, racing against the clock to post the best time of the day on a shared leaderboard.
- 6
The route ends on a simulated flight line, where the player stands beside an F-35 and uses marshaling hand signals that the system recognizes to direct the aircraft toward takeoff.
- 7
A final VR station places the player in a capsule shaped like a boom operator's station, wearing a Meta Quest 2 and holding a physical joystick and throttle to guide a refueling boom onto aircraft from a simulated tanker tail at 30,000 feet; a recorded pilot's voice gives radio commands while HUD cues and seat vibration guide three consecutive refuelings, of an F-35, a B-2, and a C-17.
- 8
The session ends at a registration tent where the player leaves contact details; at airshows the same simulators run in a compact 40x40-foot setup, where the player first picks one of two missions, flying the F-35 or refueling via a KC-135 pod replica, before reaching the contact-collection desk.
