ABSTRACT
The headline event at the Great State of Maine Air Show one gray Saturday afternoon in September of 2008 was an anticipated appearance by the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron. But the widely recognized blue and yellow F/A-18 Hornets were not to fly that day because of inclement weather. News of this cancelation did not dampen the spirits of the hundreds of visitors to the last remaining active-duty Defense Department airfield in the northeast, the Naval Air Station Brunswick. As the rain fell and some families headed back to the massive parking lot to search for their cars, many remained to hold their spots in a very long line. For these air show attendees, the main event was not in the sky but in a 19,500 square-foot structure that housed more than 70 flat screen display monitors and over 75 computers with 260 gigabytes of processing power connected by five miles of data cables:The desert camouflage beige 5,200-pound inflatable dome protecting this audacious display of digital technology from the elements announces to the soggy queue of mostly boys and men that they are waiting to enter the Virtual Army Experience (VAE).
