I had just settled into my seat on my flight from Singapore to Tokyo, and the guy in front of me reclined his seat all the way back. This made it impossible to squeeze my glass of wine into the tiny cup holder on the back of my seat or do any work. It was going to be a long flight.

Fortunately, after speaking to my friend from our Experience Centre, Carlos, I packed my Oculus Quest (a fully standalone VR headset that does not require a PC) with the intent of trying it out on the flight. Carlos said VR was game-changer for air travel, and I was eager to find out why.

Unpacking my Oculus from its travel case in the little space I had was precarious, but I finally managed to slip on my headset. For those who have not tried the Quest, it takes a couple of seconds to power on and immerses you in the virtual environment.

Immediately I was in my virtual living room, ready to launch an application that would whisk me away from the confines my cramped airline seat and into the seemingly endless virtual world. I had a few limitations on what apps I could use because anything that required optical cameras to do spatial tracking would not work as the environment was too dark and small.

The first game I tried was Red Matter. The game thrust me onto the Martian surface. Instantly I was gifted limitless space and had forgotten about the airline seat two inches from my face. It was a great experience, and the confines of my seat did not affect gameplay.

After playing Redshift for half an hour I wanted to chill out by watching a couple of movies I had loaded using the application Skybox. Skybox creates a virtual cinema to watch movies in 2D, 3D, or 360. Eventually, I settled on watching my 3D film from the comfort of the deck chair right next to the moon lander. There is no better environment for creating the illusion of space, than space. After staring at a virtual 200-inch screen hovering off the lunar surface for 20 minutes, I was fast asleep.

I had a great experience using the Oculus Quest on my flight, and I can see why airlines are exploring VR for inflight entertainment. When you have limited space to work with, tricking the brain into thinking you have more space is the right way to go. Who cares if you are in a tiny seat when you have a vast VR wilderness to explore?

VR needs to improve in a couple of areas before it is ready for prime time. Firstly the headsets need to be smaller and more comfortable to wear for extended periods. The headsets also need better displays to reduce the screen-door effect, which will make the experience more realistic. The technology is available to do this, and it is only a matter of time before the price point comes down, and it becomes standard.

First Flight with VR —  The Future of Inflight Entertainment was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.