Aviation Training Platform

Senior Unity Developer

2 years Team of 5 developers

B2B VR training platform serving global aviation industry clients including Lufthansa, Swissport, DHL, and airlines worldwide

Overview

Built and shipped 10+ training scenarios for aviation ground operations: simulations of specialized equipment (Highloader, Beltloader, Trepel) with realistic physics, AI-driven vehicles and NPCs, and VR controls.

Technical Stack

Unity 6, URP, DOTS/Entities, Meta XR/OpenXR/PICO SDK, ObiPhysics, Custom Behavior Trees, NavMesh, Contacts Modification API, UniTask/UniRx, DOTween, RootMotion, Addressables

Core Technical Contributions

  • Physics & IK - Wrote custom inverse kinematics for Highloader lift mechanisms and cargo handling. Used the Contacts Modification API for belt conveyor and roller physics, integrated with the DOTS/ECS setup. Built rope/cable/hose simulations on Obi Physics for cargo securing and equipment operations.

  • Ground Vehicle Operations - Built vehicle controls supporting physical USB steering wheels, virtual controls, and joysticks, with mixed reality via the Passthrough API. Implemented motion sickness mitigation — camera vignetting, visual anchoring, velocity constraints, vehicle stabilization — so trainees can stay in the headset through long sessions.

  • AI & Behavior Systems - Built custom action-based behavior tree framework integrated with DOTS/ECS for NPC drivers and autonomous vehicles. Implemented NavMesh-based navigation with gesture recognition for marshalling, so the player and AI ground crew can coordinate the way real crews do.

AVIAR VR training solutions deployed in corporate and field environments. Users interact with high-fidelity aircraft simulations, practicing complex procedures that would be costly or dangerous to replicate in real-world conditions.
  • Performance Optimization - Designed the ECS system execution pipeline with layered presentation/simulation groups. Implemented Asynchronous SpaceWarp with selective exclusions for fast-moving objects to hold target frame rates on Meta Quest and PICO. Profiled with Unity Profiler, OVR Metrics Tool, and Meta Quest Developer Hub.

Complex Training Scenarios

  • Pushback Operations - Multi-vehicle coordination with aircraft pushback, trajectory accuracy validation, and NPC interaction systems

  • Highloader Operations - Full cargo loading simulation with physics-based conveyor systems and custom IK solutions

  • Beltloader Integration - AI autopilot systems and automated equipment operations

Business Impact:

Industry First - Reverse-engineered proprietary USB HID protocols and built a custom Java-Unity driver plugin. The result: the first standalone VR headset application with native force-feedback steering wheel support. Competing solutions still require a PC.