Tag Archives: cockpit

Full-size Cardboard Jet Fighter Cockpit Big Enough to Fit Your Office Chair

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Don’t have the money, skills or father for a functional flight simulator? Dogfight Boss can help you feel the need for speed with its cardboard jet fighter cockpit. Dogfight Boss founder Lukas Homola based the cockpit’s structure on the F-22. He and his friend went to a museum to take photos of the cockpits of vintage planes, and then used the images to create high resolution textures.

cardboard jet fighter simulator cockpit by dogfight boss 620x348magnify

The full-sized cockpit can accommodate standard office chairs. It comes in two joystick configurations: one with the joystick stand in the middle and one with the stand on the right side. The cockpit has a ribbed frame for durability and can easily be assembled or disassembled. Because it’s made of cardboard, you can easily cut out some of the parts if you want to make room for a monitor or some other peripheral.

Here’s more on the cockpit from Lukas:

Dogfight Boss plans on releasing different cockpit styles in the future – e.g. airliner, spaceship, train, F1 – but they need to get this model off the ground first. So do some of that pilot stuff and pledge at least £299 (~$500 USD) on Kickstarter to get the full-sized cockpit as a reward. Some of the lower pledge tiers offer a PDF template of the cockpit or its kid-sized version, while the higher pledges offer customization.

[via Boing Boing]

Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot hijacks aircraft to seek asylum in Switzerland

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The co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines flight hijacked his aircraft to try to seek asylum in Switzerland on Monday. The co-pilot is said to be Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn. The 31-year-old man reportedly...

Within two years, every Delta pilot will be using a Surface 2

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Within two years, every Delta pilot will be using a Surface 2

In an unexpected turn, Delta has informed employees that it will be issuing a Surface 2 running Windows 8.1 RT to every pilot over the next two years. The airline ran an Electronic Flight Bag pilot program with iPads back in 2011, but for reasons unknown, that popular slate has since been scrapped. According to WindowsITPro, Delta had since planned to move forward with Nokia's rumored tablet, but has opted for the Surface 2 instead. The decision follows a move to equip flight attendants with Lumia 820 handsets, which will be used for processing payments and tracking passenger information. Considering the importance of a reliable cockpit device, however, this Surface 2 news is arguably far more significant.

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Via: GeekWire

Source: WindowsITPro

Awesome Dad Builds 737 Cockpit Simulator in His Son’s Bedroom

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Some dads get their kids toy cars or iPads to play with, while others go the extra mile and make something that their kids will remember for their entire lifetime. Laurent Aigon is one of the awesome dads who went for the latter.

747 simulator

For the past five years, Laurent has been building this highly-detailed 737 cockpit simulator in his son’s room. He ordered the parts online and enlisted the help of Jean-Paul Dupuy, another enthusiast, to build it with him.

737 simulator 2

You might assume that Laurent is a pilot, but he’s actually a waiter with a passion for flying. It was always his dream to be a pilot, so while that didn’t happen in real life, he can sort of pretend to be one in the amazing simulator that he put together.

[Sud Ouest via Oddity Central via Gizmodo via C|NET]

ToughWriter prototype brings color printing to the cockpit, we go hands-on

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AstroMed ToughWriter prototype brings color printing to the cockpit, we go handson

You might be surprised to hear that many current aircraft already have the ability to print documents at 30,000 feet. Long-haul airliners like the Boeing Dreamliner and Airbus A340 ship with a ToughWriter flight deck printer installed and ready to go, but the device has been limited to black and white output, which can be a bit restrictive when it comes to spitting out charts and weather information. Astro-Med, the company behind the cockpit printer currently churning out reports in thousands of commercial, business and military planes, has a spiffy new model on the way. We spotted an early prototype on display at the Paris Air Show this week, and while it's still a ways off from being cockpit-ready, the device works quite well, printing to ZINK paper at about 30 seconds per page, compared to 5 seconds for the monochrome version.

Unlike the printers we're accustomed to using on the ground, a ToughWriter must be installed before an aircraft is certified, so it's really something you need to factor in before the FAA signs off on your plane. In other words, don't expect to simply swap in this new color model once it hits the market. It's also an expensive acquisition -- it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect pricing in the $25,000 range, though that detail has yet to be announced. The version we saw in Paris is very much a work in progress -- it far exceeds the maximum size allowed, and it's heavier than the targeted 10 pounds, too. It does print quite nicely, though, and once engineers manage to squeeze the printer into a smaller housing, it'll likely include AirPrint so pilots can print from their iPads, and possibly Android wireless support, too. Astro-Med reps weren't able to tell us when the color ToughWriter will take to the skies, and considering the certification involved, it could be a few years out. Catch it in action in the gallery below.

Gallery: Astro-Med ToughWriter color cockpit printer hands-on

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Airbus A350 cockpit tour with test pilot Jean-Michel Roy (video)

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Airbus A350 cockpit tour with test pilot JeanMichel Roy video

What's it like to fly the A350? Only a handful of pilots know for sure, but Jean-Michel Roy has a pretty good idea. The Airbus test pilot has flown a variety of yet-to-be-certified aircraft over the years, and he'll soon step behind the controls of the company's answer to Boeing's Dreamliner, the A350. While the first batch of pilots are back at the aviation giant's Toulouse HQ preparing for the next test flight, Roy is schmoozing with customers a few hundred miles to the north, at the Paris Air Show. It's an arguably safer task for the industry vet, but something tells us he's itching to climb aboard this latest wide-body aircraft. We were hoping for such an opportunity here in Paris, but a delayed rollout means attendees will be lucky just to see the A350 perform an unscheduled flyover sometime over the next few days, with a cockpit mockup serving to satisfy airline execs for now.

As deep-pocketed buyers queued up for a first look at the A350 flight deck, we managed to sneak a quick peek, with Jean-Michel Roy on hand to answer questions and provide a video tour. As you might expect, the cockpit is as modern as they come, with large LCDs taking the place of traditional avionics. In fact, the layout looks more like something you'd find on a stock broker's desk -- it's quite a contrast to the aging panels many commercial pilots still use today. The overhead system controls are presented in a layout similar to what you'll find on an A320 or A330, as is the flight control unit just below the windshield. The screens below, however, are much more accessible, offering up aircraft manuals, charts, checklists, camera feeds, weather information -- you name it. A trackball and keyboard make it easy to enter info, while side-mounted joysticks let the pilots control orientation while also serving to create a cleaner look and feel. Fly past the break for a first-hand look at this state-of-the-art demo deck.

Gallery: Airbus A350 cockpit tour

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Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video)

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Lockheed Martin F35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator handson video

We spend hundreds of hours on board a variety of airplanes each year, most often en-route to a trade show or product launch event, but occasionally we have a rare opportunity to hop on board military aircraft, to test out unrelated products, or, even more unusually, to take a seat behind the yoke. Sadly that's not what we're doing today -- well, not exactly. We are taking a closer look at the F-35 fighter jet at Lockheed Martin's Fighter Demonstration Center just outside our nation's capital, but, being in the middle of a corporate complex, there's no actual Lightning II on hand. We were able to take a simulated ride, however -- this isn't your ordinary 4D sickness-inducing amusement park thrill. The F-35 is by far the most advanced Lockheed jet to date, with updated radar, all-internal weapons, improved tracking systems, 360-degree infrared coverage with a visor readout, and a full-stealth design, not to mention the incredibly capable glass cockpit powered by more than 9.3 million lines of software code, and an overall smoother experience for pilots that could end up spending shifts of 12 hours or longer in flight.

The F-35 has already seen plenty of field time in the US, with more than 500 flights already in 2012, and it's set to make its way to the UK armed forces next week and the Netherlands later this year, but while the aircraft is quite familiar to the pilots tasked with flying it, the public hasn't had an opportunity to experience Lockheed's latest airborne warrior. We flew a simulated mission within a grounded duplicate of the flyable F-35 cockpit, and the capabilities and improvements are quite clear -- you definitely don't want to encounter an F-35 from a previous-generation aircraft. The dual 8 x 10-inch touch-enabled displays combine to give you 8 x 20 inches of real estate, with dedicated modules for the weapons systems, targeting, and navigation easily accessible -- you can also move them to different panels depending on your current objective. A pair of joysticks at the left and right side provide direct access, letting you move a cursor to track enemy crafts or ground-based targets as well, and a very slick heads-up-display mounted in the helmet provides infrared mapping and instrument readouts. Overall, it seems to be an incredibly powerful system. Unfortunately, the mock-up on display here isn't accessible to the public, but you can join us for a behind-the-scenes look just after the break.

Gallery: Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II cockpit demonstrator hands-on

Continue reading Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video)

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Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Airbus Electronic Flight Bag apps save iPad savvy pilots time and paper

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Airbus Electronic Flight Bag apps for iPad savvy pilots save time and paper

For a while now, iPads have been used to replace paper in a pilot's daily duties. Airbus is also looking to further the cause with its Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) applications for the Apple slate. Pretty soon, airlines will have an alternative to existing EFB tech that runs PC operating systems with the "FlySmart with Airbus" app suite. The apps will allow crews to calculate performance and consult manuals without the need to cart around several hundred printed pages. Of course, to gain access to said software in the App Store, you'll need to be a customer in order to obtain the requisite download permissions.

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Airbus Electronic Flight Bag apps save iPad savvy pilots time and paper originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 04:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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