Maintainers are the mechanics of the U.S. Air Force. Every mission that leaves the ground depends on them and their ability to keep highly technical aircraft flying perfectly. So when the Air Force found itself 4,000 Maintainers short, it was both a personnel issue and a national security issue. Serving in the military is a very foreign concept to most American youth because they are less likely to have a family member who serves. They’re also less likely to work on engines and other mechanical things than previous generations, so it was important that we introduce this career field in

Since the Air Force can’t invite the general public onto bases to tinker with actual F-35 fighter jets, we decided to bring the career field to them. A mobile tour could travel the country and enable young people who might not know anything about the Air Force to experience the Maintainer career field in a way that other mediums wouldn’t allow them to do.

Today’s youth are inclined to interact with new gadgets, and the particular segment that is most likely to consider the Maintainer career field considers themselves as “problem solvers” who thrive on a sense of accomplishment. So we gave them the opportunity, through a series of engaging challenges that leveraged relevant technologies, to simplify complicated tasks that Maintainers do when repairing and testing multimillion-dollar aircraft.

To make this vital career field more accessible, we created The Hangar, a mobile experience built from two trailers that a small crew easily converts to look like an actual aircraft hangar. Inside, participants are immersed in real-world, on-the-job scenarios made more approachable using tech solutions. In one section, they are tasked with finding and replacing a cracked hydraulic tube in a CV-22 Osprey using augmented reality. In another, they perform a series of diagnostic tests inside an F-16 cockpit using motion detection. Finally, they get to marshal an F-35 out to the runway via an interactive video. They even get to trade salutes with the pilot and see their name on the plane like an actual crew chief. In the end, participants get a better understanding of this vital career field and have fun doing it.

In the first five months after its launch, The Hangar traveled to 20 events across 15 states with more than 7,000 people going through the experience. During this time, nearly 60% of registrants opted to receive more Air Force content and 35.6% raised their hand to be contacted by a recruiter following the event, resulting in over 1,000 qualified leads at a higher-than-average 14.4% lead rate.