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Home-built 747 Simulator
James Morris writes: "This is a cool hack: some guy is building a 747 simulator in his backyard." This is one of the most impressive even while in progress, but the other projects linked from this site set a tough standard.
Oh yeah, this guy can expect a visit from the FBI any day now!
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What's he gonna do, practice crashing into an Outback steakhouse?
I wonder if this would get the same praise if the 747-simiulator were being built in say, Islamabad instead of Sydney.
Google's cache r00lez
Engage!
What's with all the comments so far about this being used for terrorist training?? Geeze.. that's like saying "Hey I'm building a computer! The FBI better watch out, I might hack into the DOD mainframe!!"
- This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along, move along..
Google/DMOZ has a whole category for this guy and his peers. I especially liked Kev's cockpit, a little How To guide.
If he ever wanted to build a web server stress simulator, he's got one...
qslack.com
Who's calling John Ashcroft?
Certainly not the head FBI office, they tend to ignore such things...
Get your Unix fortune now!
No use blowing some small Aussie ISP out of the water.
mirror will be here for a few days
what's up with your trollish comments on MS FS
/.
Microsoft's flight simulator is one of the best simulator you could get right now, it's a decent product to say the least.
so sick of you anti-ms trolls... but then again, it's
kawai
...but I will. This guy is just looking for trouble!
It'll be funny to see who contacts him first... the terrorists or the FBI...
Actually, you chose a really poor example there. We already did the same thing a week ago on that DRM article. Which is also probably alot closer to the truth than I want to think about.
The guy at http://www.737simguy.com/ (linked off the site in the article) actually built his sim in the severed nose of a real airliner. Now that's dedication to realism.
Must be expensive though...
Behold the Power of Cheese!
My brother was visiting British Aerospace some years back and they had a bunch of Lightnings (old British supersonic fighters -- yes, such things existed :-) sat on an apron. He asked what they were for and was told that they were trade-ins from a sale of Tornadoes (European supersonic fighterish bombers) to Saudi Arabia.
He asked what was going to happen to them, and was told that they were for sale... for one pound each. The condition was that you had to take it away within a week if you bought one. Did they fly? "Well they flew them in here, but they've had the weapons deactivated and they've been sat there rotting a few years." Apparently an ex-BAe fitter who had worked on Lightnings was among the purchasers of the one-pound fighters, and had reworked it so he could, if so inclined, start the engine.
And one other point: this 747 sim is acool story. It's not "Microsoft is shit", nor about software patents or geeks in society. Just some cool borderline-crazy stuff some guy is getting up to. Reminds me of Slashdot in 1997. When I was a lad.
It seems the Aerowinx software he's planning to use is based on empirical data from thousands of 747 flights.
Perhaps he should consider X-Plane instead. It derives it's aerodynamics from first principles, and is quite accurate in simulating things that haven't been actually done. You can even get FAA certification from using X-Plane. It's already got the software hooks to drive a motion platform.
Plus you can hack the hell out of it. There's a large community of users with interesting mods.
No I can't. Microsoft made a point to buy up most of the games/software studios that did that in the mid to late 80's. Not that the DOJ would ever go after them for being a "monopoly" in the flight sim market, but it seems they have habits that they just can't get rid of.
Why limit yourself to an 747 simulator when you could build your own X-Wing cockpit, load up an old copy of LucasArt's X-Wing or the more recent X-Wing Alliance and experience the closest thing to destroying the Death Star. For the complete experience you could even dress up as an X-Wing pilot.
Surprisingly no one seems to have done this already, at least according to a quick Google search I did beforehand. You could also do something similiar in terms of a Pod Racer like the arcade game by Sega that was around a few years ago, as there is that Pod Racing game which Lucas Arts put out.
aus.music.scrapbook
Really? I'm a die-hard flightsim fan that has played Flight Simulator since FS2 on Apple IIe and every version since - the old SubLogic ones, ATP, the MS FS-series (=what the SubLogic ones were called after MS bought them), all of them. Throughout the years, there's been other sims; A320, Pro Pilot, Flight Unlimited, X-Plane, the Chuck Yeager sim (I forget the exact name) and Fly! come to mind. None of these have died because Microsoft would have bought them or used dirty tactics. Flight Simulator has always won on its own merits and continues to do so.
Fly! comes relatively close in many aspects but the graphics engine in FS2002 is still WAY ahead. Even FS2000 beats the Fly! II graphics engine! Then there's the extensibility. MS gives out SDK's and tools for its sim so people can make their own planes, sceneries and add-ons for it - such as multiplayer systems like Squawkbox, GPS and FMS systems, flight planners, etc. Then there's scenery accuracy. Then there's flight model accuracy and just plain usability and playability. And quality. Sorry, but while Microsoft may be evil and is eating children and pissing in your cornflakes, you can't deny that Microsoft has produced a kick ass sim that is competing fair and square. To try to deny Microsoft the credit for it just because the really, really, really early versions were based on SubLogic's code is just retarded. So much has changed since then in the engine that there can't be ANYTHING left really.
Then of course, there's the fact that being a monopoly isn't illegal, contrary to popular belief so the DOJ wouldn't go after them even if they DID have a monopoly in flight sims. Even theoretically.
If you want to see the history of this project , and a non slashdotted version of the side , have a look at http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.hyway.com.au/747/ 747.htm
Cruise TT
So where is the DMCA and the Patriot Act arguing that this is a danger to society?
This is a cool hack: some guy is building a 747 simulator in his backyard.
Is he a terrorist?
My workplace firewall is blocking this, so it has to wait til I go home.
But, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a "jews eat muslim babies, and the US bankrolls the dinner utensils" story. You'll have to do better than that.
Flight Sim Cockpits are becoming a popular thing among FS junkies. I admit, I'm one of "them".
Most of the sim cockpits are of large jets. Many flight simmers fly these things, including military jets, because they're fun and they'll never have the opportunity to fly one in real life. With today's computing power, one can build an incredibly realistic simulation.
I recently started thinking about building a full scale 737 cockpit after purchasing the Dreamfleet 737-400 for simulation. (www.dreamfleet2000.com). The DF737 is the most realistic 737 simulation available for flight sim. I located some good cockpit building information, and even a source of replica panels.
www.a-g-t.com has replica panels of an F-16, F-18, Airbus A320, Airbus A340, Boeing 737, Boeing 747, Boeing 777.
A good source of information is www.projectmagenta.com. Project Magenta was started in the interest of making "Glass Cockpits". In a modern big jet, there aren't likely to be guages for the primary flight instruments. These have been replaced with computer screens. Because glass cockpits are real, and computer screens are easily available to simmers, new modern jets become easy to simulate with 3 or 4 computer monitors embedded beneath the simulated flightdeck. Projectmagenta.com has pics illustrating what I'm talking about.
The only thing keeping me from building my 737 cockpit is money. I'm about to dump a bunch of money into a kit plane and go flying for real. Perhaps the 737 simulator will come afterward.
Even with real flight, I'll stick around in flight sim (as many pilots do) because I love the big jets!
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The original "flight simulator" was created by a guy named Bruce Artwick under the name SubLOGIC in 1979. In the early 1980's, Microsoft picked up flight simulator from SubLOGIC and released it for the XT. (The original was intended for TRS-80, Apple II).
If you think that today's Flight Simulator 2002, with very advanced 3d graphics and advanced flight simulation still has original code in it... you're wrong. Not only would XT code be of no use today, they re-wrote the whole thing between FS4 and FS5 anyway.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Hey, we all have our mishegoss. I decided to start a cooking show because I like to cook.
That said, I can't really see doing this myself; it's far too much work. But the technical expertise involved makes this a very cool, if somewhat monomaniacal, toy. What's really interesting is the links; there are clearly plenty of people who like this idea. The only downside is that it's anything other than a weekend project (which is really about the limit of what it would be worth, construction-wise, for me to build one...) and that it's brutally expensive...
/Brian
Does this make anyone else think of September 11th and training to fly a commercial airliner? If he actually manages to get it working, the current administration may well send some goons over to check out the situation. This is also probably a pretty good way to get a really big FBI file on yourself.
That's not to say that I don't think he should be allowed to do this, in fact I wish I had one of these things.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
All I could seem to find was a 404 simulator...
AH-HAHAHAHAHA! (Laughs since nobody else should)
That's just one subsection of a very draconian bill. I urge all Aussies to get a copy and read it. Looks like fun, doesn't it? Especially the bit about being guilty until you prove your innocence. Yes, it's not called the FBI in Australia. It's called ASIO and if the legislation gets passed it'll be just as dangerous.
Note: I don't think this guy has much to worry about though. It's the possibility that's frightening.
Nice to see nobody mentioning "MS is shit" for a change.
I mean, okay, MS is shit.. except their flight sim.
For those that don't recall, MS Flight Sim predates just about everything else they make, including windows. Fligh Sim is a niche product... it's nice to see it not as bunged up as the rest of their stuff.
You paranoid freaks make it out like it's virtually impossible to learn to fly a 747.
Guess what, if you want to take flight training for a 747, YOU CAN. Even if you wear a rag on your head. Even if you are a Muslim.
This guy is in AUSTRALIA. The FBI has no bloody jurisdiction in Australia. Why should an Australian care if the FBI is interested in him?
For that matter, the FBI deals in domestic matters. Perhaps you mean the CIA?
Good refernce site:
: www.hyway.com.au/747/747.html+%22%2Bwww.hyway.com. au/747/747.html%22&hl=en&ie=UTF8
http://www.glideslope.de/html/cockpit.htm
Google Cache:
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:lvvTeoFeD_cC
_JS
Uh, yeh. Security is simple, don't network them, and lock them in a fortress. Stability? Whatever. That you choose candyass XP instead of 2k says alot, imo. I mean what can you say? Have fun in your dreamworld. Come see me, when you want to see something real.
And I get modded -1, Troll. How fitting.
Two of my friends are black. It would be insulting to be called a fascist by anyone but you, however, you're just too stupid for me to worry about it.
Comparing 9/11 to the petty crimes that might happen in Harlem is sick. I don't have to lay awake at night wondering if some pimp from South Central LA is trying to build nuclear weapons.
And *AGAIN* you refuse to name even one of these causes. Since you are too stupid to name one of them, allow me to do so for you.
In 1200 AD such and such a muslim was there.
In 1350 AD such and such a christian was here.
Then in 1360 2 muslims were here, and a christian there. Etc.
Sure, we could eliminate the causes, just build me a time machine.
Your bold refusal to see reality just makes things worse. Most of these disgustingly twisted terrorists will never even see a hangman's noose... they choose to die in the attack. And if only 20 terrorists die for every 3000 they murder, they consider it a victory. In a way, I suppose it is... because at that rate, everyone in the US would be dead before every terrorist was.
So, I'm not treating everyone as a criminal. I don't have the power to. I'm just not being blinded by all the bullshit like you.