The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II’s most cutting-edge feature is not what one might expect. It’s not the stealth shaping, or the afterburning turbofan engine. Nor is it the plane’s software. Instead, it is the pilot’s helmet—the F-35 Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS), which is not even really a helmet in the conventional sense. “Helmets” are what football and hockey players wear to protect their heads from bumping. The HMDS is a fusion device, functionally capable of putting the pilot’s head directly inside of the aircraft’s cockpit—making the traditional cockpit instrument panel almost redundant.

Perhaps the detail that makes the HMDS’s significance most clear is the price tag. Each helmet costs $400,000—but the pilots get what they pay for!

The HMDS elevates the pilot into a node in a sensor web, capable of accessing the F-35’s array of cameras, radars, and infrared trackers. As has been noted elsewhere, aircraft pilots are traditionally........

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