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Man Builds Fully-Functional Boeing 737 Flight Simulator In His Son's Bedroom
laejoh writes "An aeroplane enthusiast has taken his obsession a step further than most after using his son's bedroom to build a Boeing 737 flight simulator that exactly mimics the real thing. Laurent Aigon, 40, from Lacanau in France, has spent the last five years collecting and buying components from around the world with best friend and fellow enthusiast (obviously) Jean-Paul Dupuy. The pair spent thousands of euros on internet orders for bits and pieces to construct the simulator – which is so realistic that the Institute of Aircraft Maintenance at Bordeaux-Merignac Airport asked him to give a lecture on his achievement. Mr Aigon has since schooled himself in all the procedures for take off and landing and says he is able to fly his 'plane' just like a real-life pilot."
But aside all that, what a GREAT dad!
Pretty cool. Guess after SFO, he's glad it wasn't a 777.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Now witness the capabilities of this fully operational 737 flight simulation!
I didn't see any hydraulics for mimicking the pitch, yaw, and roll.
It doesn't even incorporate a Stewart platform in its implementation, lame.
...using his son's bedroom to build a Boeing 737 flight simulator that exactly mimics the real thing.
5 years of noisy jet takeoffs.
Interesting that they chose a Boeing a/c rather than an Airbus!
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
But haven't dozens of people already done this over the years? For example - http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/04/18/2036248/man-builds-737-simulator-in-a-garage
I had a good friend who was the chief engineer for a major multi-national telecommunications company, who laid out around half a million building a fully functional 747 cockpit in his basement - and that was back in '99. Even had a seat and controls for the navigator.
"The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
I know what it's missing: http://www.benchfly.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Autopilot.jpg
This makes me feel lame - I haven't even finished redoing the bathroom.
How authentic are the fur seats?
His son has no interest in airplanes, and his dad is forcing it on him.
I remember my dad taking the family to the airport to watch the planes take off and land for hours at a time; thank god they closed the observation area after 9/11.
Microsoft Flight Simulator '98
737?
url:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/06/sfo-airport-asiana-crash_n_3555482.html
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
"Use your own bedroom, Dad!"
The G
The display in particular is pretty shoddy. I've seen much much better out there in terms of DIY flightsims.
Oh, and to this line in TFA:
"He also has interest from a couple of major aircraft manufacturers who want to use his creation to simulate various scenarios."
No, he doesn't. Aircraft manufacturers have no interest whatsoever in this.
Does it run Flightgear?
son to put in a bedroom that the poor kid can't even use except for sleeping
What are you talking about, this kid has got the world's greatest toy in his bedroom!
He can build a flight simulator, but can't straighten the pictures on the wall for an internationally circulated photograph. Figures.
Call the NSA. He is obviously trying to aid the enemy. He even hid his terrorist training equipment in his son bedroom. What a horrible father. Take his son away! Think of the children!
It was an Airbus 757.
On an Airbus, the controls are simply tied to LCD and haptic feedback devices. An Airbus simulator and a real Airbus cockpit are exactly the same thing--a really expensive joystick connected to an XBox. What's the fun in that?
Well, it *COULD* have been a great toy... if his son seemed to show any interest in the simulator, or airplanes in general. According to TFA, it's "unclear" what his son thinks.
As it sits right now, it's a toy for the dad. He should have constructed this in his garage... not his son's bedroom unless the boy was actively interested in this sort of thing.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It was a Boeing 777.
VERY good airplane. (Direct quote from an American Airlines 777 First Officer: "Sweetest-flying airplane I ever flew!" Direct quote from a very senior American Airlines 777 Captain: "10 years in 757/767. First time I got in the 777, I realized they'd fixed things I hadn't realized had been bugging me.")
I was going to re-build my 787 simulator, but the fire department won't let me.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I'm sure it is a lot harder to find matching parts and know what the cockpit looks like and what features it has... when those things are likely secrets, if not classified.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Hey c'mon man.. At least he got the damn thing out of the garage
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
No mention of the software used anywhere and no speculation.
One of the pictures looks like a windows desktop, so one would assume one of the Flight Simulator programs, most likely Flight Simulator X. Anyone who messes with the stuff would probably have assumed that from the setup. It's like speculating that the fuel in your car's gas tank is unleaded. It may be a technical detail, but uninteresting and a foregone conclusion anyway.
Learn to love Alaska
You really think he lets his son even get near that?
Your dad obviously was not obsessed with model trains. Friend of mine had to suffer from one, he had the coolest model train kit on earth (dedicated a whole room to it), but his kids were not allowed in there, he was afraid they could "ruin" it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Don't worry, Airbuses have better safety track than Boeings. You'll be fine.
This,
The biggest difference between the A330 and the B777 is that the B777 crams in an extra seat per row.
Airline and pilot are the big factors in determining if a plane is safe or not.
I've got my first flight in an A380 coming up and I _am_ looking forward to that (just not the other 500 passengers I'll have to be around).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
A likely question from uncultured Americans!
menage a trois is a peculiarly French custom. (accents omitted on account of /. horrible unicode support.) The man doesn't need time, he just needs a partner.
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
It was a Boeing 777.
VERY good airplane. (Direct quote from an American Airlines 777 First Officer: "Sweetest-flying airplane I ever flew!" Direct quote from a very senior American Airlines 777 Captain: "10 years in 757/767. First time I got in the 777, I realized they'd fixed things I hadn't realized had been bugging me.")
****** A+++++ Wuld fly again
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I've seen several of these flight sim projects. One part of me understands completely why the people who build them build them (I have enough hobbies that others think are a complete waste of time and money to understand entirely why people building flight sims like this want to do it), but another part of my brain is saying "for the money and time invested, you can actually build your own real, flying aircraft you can pilot yourself, and the graphics and frame rate are a lot lot better!".
Kind of reminds me. About a year before they closed Meigs in Chicago (which used to be the default start airport in Microsoft Flight Simulator), I flew in there for real in my elderly Cessna 140. I was kind of surprised when the frame rate didn't slow to about 10 fps when all the buildings of Chicago hoved into view :-)
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
...that exactly mimics the real thing....which is so realistic that the Institute of Aircraft Maintenance at Bordeaux-Merignac Airport asked him to give a lecture on his achievement....He also has interest from a couple of major aircraft manufacturers who want to use his creation to simulate various scenarios...
I maintain and build flight simulators and synthetic trainers all over the world, from France to China and the same again for approvals with regulators. This thing wouldn't even reach class C let alone class D so exactly mimics is bullshit, even class D can't exactly mimic everything. Even if you follow manuals to the letter, things like control workflow and timings are always off, that's why you can even get class C equipment approved even if some of the cockpit control workflow is actually wrong. There are about one hundred of these sorts of in-house setups like this in homes around the world now, even more if you include those which don't use actual cockpit components. Hardware isn't the problem these days with flight sims and synth trainers, hell, I've seen 6DOF motion class C trainers (with projected wrap-around SPOV visuals, none of this monitor crap) that run off one Core i7 system with all I/O (including motion, excluding visuals) being handled by USB! The real problem is the software, that's where all the limitations lie as too much of it is off the shelf software or components all hobbled together, even the stuff from multi-billion dollar US defence contractors whose names I'd love to spill but alas...
But aside all that, what a GREAT dad!
Yes, he built a cockpit in his son's bedroom. What TFA didn't say is that the entry door is located in his own bedroom.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
The choice was probably driven largely by availability of cockpit parts. There is an impressive amount of 737s out there in various states of operation.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Yeah. Great Dad. Uses his son's bedroom as a playroom for his hobby with his pal.
Son may be ok about it just now, but what happens when he decides he's too old for his father's toys?
For masturbation. That's what I mean.
Even if the kid has not yet reached that age, I'm sure he still needs sleep. And if you've ever been working on a project even remotely as cool as this, you know there are a lot of very late, profanity laden, nights involved. Kids need sleep! Even if they say otherwise!
I've flown on AirFrance's first A380, great plane. Yeah it's massive, but the seating was quite comfortable and the in flight entertainment options were great for a cross ocean trip from Paris to JFK. Enjoy the trip.
AJ Henderson
That's true, but many with different cockpit setups. The 737 classic and NG models have seen a huge jump in technology, even for being largely the same plane.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
No. he's proven he's able to fly his simulator, not the real aircraft. An actual training flight simulator goes through an exhaustive validation to ensure it is accurately reproducing the aircraft within the envelope of interest. While he may have been able to get real cockpit parts to get the look of the real cockpit, there's no guarantee that his simulator reproduces the real flight envelope of the aircraft accurately, or that the system components were assembled in a way as to properly reproduce the aircraft system response. And training in an inaccurate simulator can be worse than training in no simulator at all.
Still, kudos for the DYI simulator. It's a cool grown-up toy, but it's not a training device.
Maybe he doesn't watch TV 8 hours a day, like all other intelligent people are doing.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Poor journalism really. I would expect the reporter to track down the man's ex-wife for comment.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Man generously allows son to sleep in his Fully functional Boeing 747 Flight Simulator Room
Airbusses are nice. If you hit turbulence? They are "flexier" than Boeings. Unsettling, but smoother.
The overhead bins are much taller, and better shaped. The ceilings seem less enclosed.
Good planes.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Sum Ting Wong
It looked like the default Windows 7 background (the Windows logo window). Seemed pretty clear to me.
Learn to love Alaska
Well, the kid has the luxury of practicing to be a member of the mile high club I guess.
I doubt the kid is that old. He was probably just born when the project started so it might be a few years before he is aware of that stuff. But hey, this is in France so who knows.
I don't know if FSX is flexible enough to support a cockpit like that. It could also be X-Plane or Flightgear; both available on Windows.
Yes, and there are some others. I've seen people wire in realistic controls, what I haven't seen is someone set up a game with monitors used as the glass cockpit, though I'm sure that's out there and readily available, I've not tried or seen it, so I don't know which support it, if any.
Learn to love Alaska