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Man Builds 737 Simulator In a Garage
linuxwrangler writes "It started with a dream of building a full-sized jet flight simulator. Now, 20 years, $150,000 and one divorce later, James Price can walk to his garage and fly the 737 simulator he built built from the nose of a surplus 737. From the article: 'James Price had one must-have when looking for a new home -- the garage had to be able to hold the nose of a Boeing 737 jetliner.
"Once I realized I could get it in here, I was OK with the house," Price said.
In his spacious three-car garage Price has a well-traveled jetliner cockpit tucked in next to the family car.
Aviation experts say Price, 52, is one of only a handful of people in the world who have built their own flight simulator cockpit in an actual jet nose."
...was that guy who built a 737 simulator inside an actual 737.
He was arrested by the TSA.
... as they make sure that this sort of thing is not being used to train future terrorirsts.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
some guy somewhere is saying "WOW... Honey, look at what this guy built in his garage for $150,000" and his wife/girlfriend/significant other is yelling "AND ONE DIVORCE!!!!"
Aviation experts say Price, 52, is one of only a handful of people in the world who have built their own flight simulator cockpit in an actual jet nose.
Who would have guessed?
But congratulations on being the second (of the only two posts) to draw an erroneous "post-9/11" link to a great aviation geek achievement.
... but, if he mods it so it has motion, then it's not going to fit in his garage any more. It will need to be housed somewhere else.
Will that make it lose it's "prestige" of being a homebrew simulator once it's out of there?
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_20417444/flying-world-from-his-own-garage?source=most_viewed
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
>and one divorce later
Who could have seen this coming?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Just WOW! This is really impressive.
(I can't believe that among ~15 posters so far nobody said the one thing this article truly deserves, so I have to be the first one)
May Peace Prevail On Earth
According to TFA, Price has been collecting these parts for quite some time. But that's no easy task either, as working instruments don't generally get tossed out.
Have gnu, will travel.
...with a bunch of local high school students. Its a long running project that we recently started to build a simulator from a Beechcraft A90 cockpit. The students are doing pretty much all the work, while some of us at local engineering firms offer guidance and help. Right now, they are making their own switch panels and interfacing them with the simulator computers using Arduino boards. The whole simulator is driven by X-Plane. We have 3x55" 1920x1080 monitors wrapping around the windshield, and a real Garmin G1000 glass cockpit system. Check out our class page to learn more about our progress.
If you haven't read the article, they also point to a few more folks building realistic commercial aircraft simulators around the world...
For example,
this one http://web.me.com/mattford1/Site/Matts_Boeing_737_Flight_Sim.html
or this one http://www.hyway.com.au/747/747.html
Although it sounds like Mr. Price's is the first one with an actual nose from a real 737 (the some of the other ones merely use some fraction of the real cockpit equipment in a shell).
this guy, with a replica pan-am cabin in his garage. No word if he has stewardesses with 1970s-style bush.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I found a link to his website. It mentions specialized software/joystick driver (for Windows 95!) that allows one to map the hundreds of buttons and switches so that the flight sim software can interface with it. The site also mentions ancient versions of MS Flight Simulator from the early 2000s.
Given that it's not 2002 anymore, I would hope he's using something more realistic today, like X-Plane.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
Oops. Should have put the link. Here is his old site from 2004
http://www.737simguy.com/OldSite/intro.htm
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
Pretty cool project, I'd love to have one of those in the garage. I wonder if his projectors are projecting a distorted image that looks correct on the screen since they don't appear to be right in front of it.
As a warning, the article contains a link to his website under renovation. His new site has a link to his old one and when I went there I was getting a Java exploit alert from MSE. YMMV, but thought I'd mention it.
Before you get into the garage, you have to go through his TSA simulator. It's a rubber glove on an articulated arm.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X is still more realistic and capable than X-Plane. besides it includes better scenery, more complete list of airports (with more details of each).
I use all major flight simulators (including open source Flightgear) and I still prefer FSX.
Yeah I don't understand the fuss over x-plane. A lot of the aircraft fly like shit (I got the F-22 to accelerate continuously vertically until I blacked out, WTF). I don't care that it uses damn blade element theory; it's a pretty much a crude real time CFD analysis and it shows. Empirical parameters for a model are usually better than a crappy analysis, yet x-plane insists it's the tits because it does crappy analysis in real-time.
I'd really like to see a Millennium Falcon simulator. Full sized cockpit, attacking Star Destroyers, rescuing amputees from weather vanes, the whole nine yards. That would be impressive. Most impressive.
I haven't used a fight sim since X-Plane 5.4. At the time I was much more impressed with X-Plane than Flight Simulator despite X-Plane being behind in the eye candy department.
I figured since X-Plane is supposedly built to be more of a simulator than a game it would be best for a simulator, but then I'm not really a flight sim expert.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
... this certainly is a tool to train terrorists.
1. quirky old white guy, pisses off wife, builds plane nose in his garage because it was a dream, we all get a laugh and are happy for him. He gets high-fives and we admire him. 2. quirky old brown/middle eastern guy builds a plane nose in his garage because it was a dream, he gets raided, confined, interrogated, accused of terrorist activity, loses house, and his $150k simulator. Congress moves to prevent security breaches like this, the outfit that sold him the nose comes under scrutiny, goes out of business.
Boy I wish i had all the time and money in the world to do projects like this. I think a ton of people are capable of "feats" like this, but actually have to work for a living and then go home to spend time with family.
If you find your family that much of a burden on your valuable spare time, you're better off leaving them and living alone.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it