Philip Nuber, director of the Defense Mapping Agency, says that using this virtual technology in flight simulation can help soldiers in peace time as well as war.
"To get the movement you have to be true to the original form, or audiences will see something is off and pop out of the fantasy world we've created, " says Claudia Chung, a simulation supervisor who oversaw the technology for all the film's clothing and hair.
As a professor in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he's using a combination of mathematical modeling, computer simulation and behavioral experiments to explain how people learn new things.
Mastering original jet fighter technology is a challenge and learning about one of the hottest battles of the Cold War makes it a simulation worth flying.