Flight simulator fans revive a classic Boeing 747 cockpit

How far would you take your flight simulation hobby? Perhaps some extra screens? Maybe some custom controllers? Or would you go as far as to revive a scrapped Boeing 747 cockpit to satisfy your simulation needs? In the heart of Silicon Valley, a dedicated group of enthusiasts is reviving the cockpit of a scrapped Boeing 747 to …

[Antron Argaiv]

You know you would...

...given unlimited time, money and space. What kid hasn't dreamed of having his own aircraft cockpit out in the shed/basement/garage? I expect to see the result in a future Geek's Guide article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You know you would...

... although you know round here that what some will really want is to do it using a Vulcan cockpit instead...

[Irongut]

Re: You know you would...

Nope. If it were a Spitfire, X-Wing or Colonial Viper (original) then my young self would have been interested but a lumbering commercial airliner? Nah.

[Oh Matron!]

Re: You know you would...

If, by "kid" you mean "adult" then count me in :-)

[David Hicklin]

Re: You know you would...

Nowhere near the same league but in my model train build project stating sometime next year I want some realism on the controller for the locomotive that is closer to real life

Working on PIC programming to have the speed control input midway position to be neutral so that increasing it adds "power" and reducing below it applies the the brakes - just like the control stick in a real loco. In the neutral position the train will just "coast" slowly reducing speed do to an artificial drag

Now adding AWS/TPS will be a bit more challenging !

[Judge Mental]

Re: You know you would...

You can.

https://www.thespitfireexperience.com/

Also supporting RAFA.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You know you would...

My mistake, they support the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Both are fine organisations.

[cookieMonster]

Absolutely brilliant

The old spirit of sheds and boffins is alive and well, there’s still hope for the world.

[MyffyW]

Re: Absolutely brilliant

The future will always belong to bicycle mechs, electronics hacks (in the older sense of the word) and anybody whose idea of a "workshop" involves light engineering not whiteboards and teams calls.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Absolutely brilliant

You've met my dad, I see! I wish now I'd paid more attention.

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

"it is also just as cool as it sounds."

That's a PoV comment if ever I saw one.

I know exactly what he means. And so does Mrs_C.

[frankvw]

Impressive

This takes the whole concept of being a hopeless Anorak to entirely different... ehm... heights.

[Michael Hoffmann]

Only one thing

Deserves one or more --->

(but not during flight! 8 hours bottle to throttle, as we used to say)

[JPCavendish]

Re: Only one thing

Given that the greatest danger here is rolling down a stair or two, I would say enjoy a bit of in-flight liquid refreshment ;) likely to be one of the vanishingly few times you can legally get slightly tipsy and still be allowed to fly a true-to-life big jet.

[Michael Hoffmann]

Re: Only one thing

Not so! The greatest danger is spilling your beer on your kit! The agony!

[cd]

Much better than reading about AI.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

747 SCA

https://flightsim.to/file/40862/boeing-747-sca

Someone should do a simulation video of Discovery being ferried from Virginia to Houston...

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/09/cornyn_smithsonian_shuttle_comments/

[LogicGate]

Re: 747 SCA

While I have seen trucking simulators out there, I have not yet heard about a barge simulator. Undoubtedly, someone will enlighten me.

[An_Old_Dog]

Barge Simulator

"God, this is boring. Stupid barge. I'm so glad we're almost there. Okay, slow down ... slow down ... stop ... stop. Stop! I SAID, 'STOP' YOU STUPID THING WHY WON'T--" CRUNCHSKREEEEEEEEE

[that one in the corner]

Re: Barge Simulator

That is why you have rubbing strakes.

Opps.

*Had* rubbing strakes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty sure, back in the day.

We recreated the flight deck of the Jupiter II in my friend’s Dad’s shed.

Cardboard and marker pens, no expense spared.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fly where?

I always thought I'd like a flight simulator on my PC. That was until the day I went to a friends who used to fly a lot for business. When I turned up he said, "Oh, just about to land at Dublin on the route I take there most months."

While I couldn't fault is enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment from it, it just felt a little sad to me and put me off getting my own.

[werdsmith]

Re: Fly where?

I stopped flying GA some years ago, and I do miss it, but to some extent a VR headset and a very good simulation of a Garmin G1000 has helped to fill that void.

Without it, the transition from VOR/ILS to modern PBN would have passed me by.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Fly where?

Amen to that. PPL/IR became a wee bit rich for me after I retired. Now I can fly my Pilatus to Courchevel whenever I get the urge. Which is quite often.

[LogicGate]

Re: Fly where?

While being an avid aviation enthusiast, I have trouble getting excited about setting altitude, airspeed and course, just in order to bore a hole through the sky.

This is why I trend towards the more dynamic ways of flying; soaring, combat simulators and similar. Still, If flying London-Dubai (or Kerbal-Mun) in realtime is what floats your boat, then feel free to enjoy it.

At least it is not a stamp collection.

[JPCavendish]

Re: Fly where?

"While being an avid aviation enthusiast, I have trouble getting excited about setting altitude, airspeed and course, just in order to bore a hole through the sky."

And that there is precisely the reason these lads have chosen a B747-200 with the old style instrumentation; because you have to actually fly the plane. And going back to the beginnings of manned spaceflight, some of the earlier Gemini astronauts complained bitterly that they were nothing more than highly trained monkeys due to the high level of automation, and campaigned (successfully) for a technology backstep in order to reintroduce some element of human control.

[Aladdin Sane]

Re: Fly where?

The Mercury 7 were referred to as "Spam in a can" by Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff due to the level of automation.

[LogicGate]

Re: Fly where?

I would not take Chuck Yeager's words on anything. He appears very much to have been the living proof of the saying "never meet your heroes".

While the Mercury astronaut program may have been run fast and loose, things tightened up quickly. Shuttle astronauts were expected to know every system in the shuttle with incredible granularity.

[werdsmith]

Re: Fly where?

This is why I trend towards the more dynamic ways of flying; soaring, combat simulators and similar. Still, If flying London-Dubai (or Kerbal-Mun) in realtime is what floats your boat, then feel free to enjoy it.

Having done many hundreds of hours in real GA aircraft including tailwheel, aeros, complex and multi, simulation at a level I can afford doesn't even come close to the experience of hands and feet on controls with actual air running over the connected control surfaces, so the video game aspect does nothing for me. Without G, manouvering a SIM is really quite pointless. But a SIM does do a really excellent job of procedural flying, so I can get the real approach/departure plates for an airport and set up some below minima weather and fly a hold and then approach to decision height and fly missed approach back to the hold and have another go. I don't do long transits between airports, but I do set myself up IFR nav tasks.

[LogicGate]

Re: Fly where?

In my case it is the nuts and bolts behind it. I am currently trying to get around problems with lack of aerodynamic fidelity in x-plane.

[Mrs Spartacus]

Re: Fly where?

I get that. But when I used to play around years ago with flight sims, it was the technicalities of take offs and landings, and short hops, that appealed, something to keep the brain active.

I did a few long hauls, but always requested my wife provide an in-flight trolley service to keep things real. She drew the line at the mile-high club simulation though....

[JPCavendish]

There isn't enough beer in the world to recognise this achievement. Well done lads; top job.

[Kevin 243]

Another 747....

I was lucky enough to be invited to look at another 747 simulator which also does runs for charity:-

Have a look at simfest.co.uk for info about it.

[Steve Davies 3]

Ahh the memories

of working with Boeing drawings (twice full size and zero dimensions) back in 1970 to make the cockpit of a South African Airways B747-200 Flight Simulator.

We would spread the drawings out on the floor of the 'Erection Shop' at Redifon Flight Simulation in Crawley and measure each part so that we could draw them up to be made.

such was the life of an apprentice back then.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Last passenger 747 into Heathrow - KE907 arriving at Heathrow 16.30 Today

KE 907 Korean Air

ICN Seoul - LHR London

Scheduled arrival 16:30 GMT

Estimated 15:58 GMT

https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-tracker/KE/907?year=2025&month=10&date=31

https://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/terminal-4/flight-details/KE907/31-10-2025?search=arrivals

May be a watercannon salute/welcome?

[Fred Daggy]

oooooohhhhhh

(Rubs chin) I wonder what the final price would be?

Also, supplementary question, asking for a friend. How much is a kidney going for these days. Fresh, one not so careful owner.

FD.