The Squadronis helping thousands of corporate customers see how high they can soar without ever lifting their feet off the ground
Crashing a $100 million fighter jet into the country’s largest man-made reservoir wasn’t something that I ever really planned on doing. But there I was one sunny spring afternoon crashing a supersonic stealth jet not once, not twice, but three times, joining a group of human resources executives at a special introductory session at The Squadron, a Manhattan-based Israeli start-up that uses world-class flight simulators to help corporate employees maximize their potential.
As someone who has never even flown a kite successfully, I didn’t really expect to see my name up there at the top of The Squadron’s leaderboard. I wasn’t feeling overly confident about my ability to fly an F-35, or even a simulation of one, but hey, you never really know until you give it a try, right?
There is a certain energy in the air from the moment I first walk into The Squadron’s World Trade Center training facility. Aviation motifs are everywhere, from The Squadron’s winged logo to an entranceway cabinet stocked with neatly folded flight suits and leather bomber jackets. The hallway floors’ lit edges create a runway effect, engineered to imbue visitors with the feeling that they are about to take off and reach new heights. There are images of fighter jets on the walls, and just being in The Squadron makes me feel like I can fly.
At first glance, The Squadron evokes images of the U.S. Navy’s TOPGUN program, known for producing elite fighter pilots, but the unobtrusive mezuzah affixed to the wall outside The Squadron’s double glass doors quickly blurs that distinction. Hebrew seems to be the first language of every employee I meet, and the office chatter that I overhear during my two hours at The Squadron is in Hebrew as well. I kind of want to raise my hand and say, “Maybe don’t tell any secrets in front of me because I understand every word you’re saying.”
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