KAI to develop flight training simulator with 3D game company

Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) is partnering with Epic Games Korea to develop a virtual reality (VR) flight training system.

The South Korean aerospace and defense company recently announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Epic Games Korea to create a VR flight training simulator for the Korean-made KF-21 fighter jet using Unreal Engine 5.

This game engine is widely used in various industries such as architecture, automobiles and movies, and its high resolution and accuracy make it possible to implement highly immersive flight images.

KAI is developing a cutting-edge metaverse training system that integrates Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as extended reality and virtual reality with its aircraft and training system development expertise.

The VR flight simulator will be used as a pilot training tool before using existing full-flight simulators, enabling large-scale joint training to improve pilot training effectiveness.

In the future, this metaverse-based training system can be expanded and applied to helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, submarines and high-speed landing craft. It can also be used in industries that require high-risk, high-tech equipment operators in both private and public sectors.

"We have developed training system technology based on various data acquired while developing aircraft over the past 30 years. We will grow the training system business into a future growth engine based on Fourth Industrial Revolution technology, not as a supplementary business to aircraft manufacturing," said a KAI official.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com