About

The Story

During the Second World War, Britain faced a new and terrifying form of attack. Fast, low-flying aircraft and dive bombers struck ships, airfields, and cities with unprecedented speed, leaving defensive gunners dangerously underprepared. Training with live aircraft was impossible, and existing methods failed to replicate the chaos and pressure of real combat.

In response, Lieutenant Commander Henry Christian Stephens, Royal Navy, devised a radical solution: an immersive training system that projected moving aircraft onto the inside of a plaster dome, allowing gunners to practise tracking and interception under simulated attack. Known as the Dome Trainer, this invention trained hundreds of thousands of naval, army, air force, and merchant seamen across Britain, the Commonwealth, and the United States.

Its impact was immense, yet its story remains largely unknown.

The Secret Dome VR brings this forgotten innovation back into focus, not as a historical footnote, but as a highly immersive experience.

A Personal History

The experience is based on the historical research and writing of Ewan Ward-Thomas, grandson of Henry Christian Stephens. Drawing on family archives, private journals, official records, and extensive institutional research, Ewan’s work restores recognition to his grandfather’s invention and places it within the broader story of Britain’s wartime ingenuity.

This unique access allows The Secret Dome VR to be grounded in first-hand testimony and original mateial. What emerges is not only the story of a machine, but of the people who designed it, built it, trained within it, and relied on it for survival.

From History to Virtual Reality

While the Dome Trainer was a product of analogue technology, its purpose was strikingly modern: to create an immersive, embodied training environment that prepared individuals for high-risk scenarios before they faced them in reality.

Virtual reality offers a rare opportunity to reconnect with that original intent. The Secret Dome VR allows contemporary audiences to experience the invention as it was meant to be used: spatially, emotionally, and under pressure. The experience does not gamify history, nor does it fictionalise events. Instead, it translates documented training methods and combat scenarios into an interactive form that mirrors how gunners once learned, reacted, and survived.

The experience closes a historical loop: using modern immersive technology to tell the story of one of its earliest ancestors.

The Team

Ewan Ward-Thomas

Ewan Ward-Thomas is the Managing Director of The Secret Dome VR and the author of the book on which the VR experience is based. He is the grandson of Lieutenant Commander Henry Christian Stephens, inventor of the Dome Trainer.

Ewan leads the project’s vision, historical direction, and overall strategy. Drawing on family archives, private journals, and extensive institutional research, he ensures that the experience is grounded in rigorous scholarship while remaining accessible to contemporary audiences. His role bridges historical authenticity, narrative clarity, and cultural stewardship, ensuring that this overlooked chapter of British innovation is restored with accuracy, care, and purpose.

Jacob Dale

Managing Director & Historian

Creative Director

Jacob leads the creative translation of historical research into immersive virtual reality. With a background in cinematic storytelling, spatial design, and emerging technologies, he is responsible for the experience’s visual language, interaction design, and emotional pacing.

Jacob specialises in crafting immersive experiences that are technically robust, intuitively interactive, and suitable for public exhibition, including the HMS Wellington Immersive VR Experience that ran on the historic warship in Central London in 2025. Jacob ensures The Secret Dome VR functions not only as a historical work, but as a compelling, contemporary VR experience.

ewt@vrsecretdome.co.uk

jacob@vrsecretdome.co.uk