The United States Air Force (USAF) trains C-130H Loadmaster students at Little Rock Air Force Base (AFB) through a civilian contract. The Aircrew Training System (ATS) contractor utilizes a Fuselage Trainer (FuT) to provide scenarios for the Loadmaster students to practice loading and unloading a simulated aircraft. The problem was the USAF does not have enough training devices and these devices are not at a high enough fidelity to accomplish many of the aircraft functions to meet the training objectives before flying on the actual aircraft. The ATS has moved the pilot's initial training into the Weapon System Trainer (WST). The WST has nearly eliminated all the aircraft flights for pilot initial instrument training because the simulator is life-like enough to accomplish the training tasks to qualify the students in the device. The Loadmaster student flights are scheduled based upon the pilot's flight training, thus forcing the Loadmaster students to utilize some other type of simulator device for their initial training. The goal was to investigate an efficient and effective AR training system to instruct Loadmaster skills before they train on the aircraft. The investigation examined the use of a prototype Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) AR device attached to the Loadmaster's helmet. Three scenarios provided a basis to evaluate the different aspects of hardware and software needed to utilize an HMD as a Loadmaster training tool. The scenarios tested how the AR device may improve the C-130H Loadmaster training capabilities to learn normal and emergency procedures to students in the FuT. The results show a way to save the government thousands of dollars in fuel cost savings and open the eyes of the training contractor to a new way of training students using AR.

The purpose of this study was to determine if extended periods of time out of the training environment has an effect on the retention of training. The rationale for conducting this study was based on the fact that little research has been done in this area. The findings of the study indicated that extensive periods of time out of training do significantly influence the amount of training retained fromone loadmaster course to the other. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between the number of days out of training and the posttest scores. The optimum training break between courses appears to be between 10 and 20 days. Training retention is apparently affected by time.