Article from BTNews 18 MARCH 2019
Fly with the Dambusters
The RAF Museum Hendon has introduced one of the most innovative exhibitions in its history. Visitors can now take a virtual reality ride on an Avro Lancaster to attack the Möhne Dam.
Participants need to don a VR headset and haptic vest bringing the real feel and presence of being in the radio operator’s seat in the bomber. It is so realistic that by standing up one can see the pilot, flight engineer and navigator all at work and view out of the side window the Ruhr valley forests during the low approach. The vest and headset fantasise the vibration and roar of the four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.
Unless you have already flown the device, participants seem a little weird jumping up from their seats and clearly looking for something that is in cyberspace.
Olie Kay of All Seeing Eye, the company that created the ride, said: “This experience isn't about explaining all the facts of the mission. It's about exploring the human story of the real people who were on the aircraft and communicating an authentic sense of place what it may have been like to be there.”
Entrance to the RAF Museum and Dambusters exhibition is free. The Lancaster ride is £10. RAF Hendon is a 5min walk from Colindale Station on the Northern Line.
See Inflight virtual reality BTN 11 June 2018
And Inflight Virtual Reality on Iberia BTN 18 February 2019
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum