Air Force Academy shares inside look at new Hosmer Visitor Center

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)--Crews are making big progress on constructing the Air Force Academy's new Visitor Center.

The Academy says they hope to bring in new recruits and a lot of tourism with the new visitor's center and hotel. Both will be open to the public and will give people an inside look at cadet life.

"It'll be a re-branding of the story and immersive and technologically advanced," said Lisa Neener with the Academy.

This is the first time the visitor's center has received upgrades since 1980.

"We want to tell a more holistic story and change the story for our visitors and represent our cadets, grads, community and do some education for visitors who maybe don't even realize that there's a service academy right here on the front range," added Neener.

The history of the academy and its former cadets are posted throughout the center and each graduating class is represented by a color. 

"There's going to be what we're calling tetrahedron, which will you know, the visitors will walk underneath and have both digital and sound and make them feel like they're part of the story," added Neener.

The Hosmer Visitor Center is named after the first-ever Air Force Academy graduate, Lieutenant General Retired Bradley C. Hosmer, who graduated in 1959.

The Air Force Academy hopes this new change will help inspire younger generations to join the military and become influential people in their community. 

"And there are some facilities that might mirror a bit of what we're trying to accomplish here, but not in this location and not with this quality of execution. This is going to be the best of any service academy in terms of visitor experience, the opportunity to stay next door at the hotel," said Mark Hille, CEO of the Air Force Academy Foundation.

The new Polaris Hotel will provide cadets with the opportunity to have their families stay near them but will also be open to the public. 

"The highlight for us though are our flight simulators. We will be the first hotel in North America to offer three flight simulators, one 737 and two f-16s," Said Curtis Bova, General Manager of the Polaris Hotel.

Both projects are expected to be done by the end of this year.