Dogfight Dynamics and MSI at I/ITSEC 2024

December 2–6, 2024 Orlando, Florida Dogfight Dynamics × MSI

Mission brief / 01

At I/ITSEC 2024, Dogfight Dynamics partnered with MSI to put a full-scale F/A-18C cockpit inside one of the world’s largest modeling, simulation, and training gatherings.

The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference brings defense, industry, academia, and international partners together in Orlando. Inside the MSI booth, our cockpit gave that audience a physical way to explore immersion.

The demonstration combined cockpit geometry, illuminated controls, visual systems, and virtual reality. Instead of presenting immersion as a screen specification, it let visitors experience how the physical and digital layers support one another.

Dogfight Dynamics F/A-18C cockpit installed in the MSI booth at I/ITSEC 2024 — The cockpit integrated directly into MSI’s demonstration environment on the I/ITSEC show floor.

Physical geometry changes virtual reality.

A headset can control what the pilot sees, but the cockpit determines what the pilot reaches for. When the seat, stick, throttle, panels, and forward structure occupy the expected positions, the virtual view gains a physical reference.

That relationship became the center of the I/ITSEC demonstration. Visitors could move from the real illuminated panels to the virtual scene without giving up the tactile environment around them.

I/ITSEC attendee flying the Dogfight Dynamics cockpit in virtual reality — Virtual reality supplied the scene while the cockpit supplied the physical reference.

VR headset mounted on the Dogfight Dynamics cockpit at I/ITSEC 2024 — The demonstration joined visual immersion with full-scale controls and structure.

A collaboration built around the whole system.

Working with MSI made it possible to demonstrate the cockpit as part of a broader technology stack. Computing, graphics, displays, virtual reality, controls, and cockpit hardware all had to perform together for a demanding five-day event.

That integration work is directly relevant to turn-key commissions, where the client needs one configured system rather than a collection of independent products.

The most convincing simulation begins when the physical cockpit and the digital world agree.

The complete Dogfight Dynamics and MSI installation operating on the I/ITSEC 2024 floor.

Dogfight Dynamics and MSI team members beside the cockpit at I/ITSEC 2024 — Dogfight Dynamics and MSI brought the integrated demonstration together in Orlando.

From event integration to client commissioning.

I/ITSEC 2024 tested more than cockpit hardware. It tested transport, installation, calibration, public operation, and the handoff between physical and digital systems.

Those lessons now inform how we plan complete builds and white-glove on-site assembly: define the system, prepare every interface, commission it in place, and leave the pilot with a cockpit ready to fly.

About I/ITSEC.