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It's possible that the misguided torchman
may have been inspired by the brilliant work of various Australian
engineers who convert the noses of old aircraft into high-tech
flight sims. The example on the left shows the start of Chris
Benton's B-737 project in Darwin, Australia. A typical conversion
may require years of careful work (no cutting torches!) and the
complete replacement or remanufacture of all systems, controls, and
instruments.
Standard procedure apprears to be to buy your own scrap Boeing
nose-section, neatly remove the nose section (without setting the
aircraft on fire), and carefully rework it with a well though out
engineering approach!
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| In another example, Australian Matthew
Scheil's B747 flight-sim was modelled on an original B747 Classic
nose, but it's been finished as 747-400 with a full glass cockpit
and outside views powered by about a dozen sophisticated computers.
The flight/systems software is the 747 Precision
Simulator which you can buy this website for less than the
price of a 20-year old Chevette!
The economics of these projects is staggering. The cost runs
into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, it still beats
buying a full-size flight-sim from CAE (the cheapest of which will
be at least $25,000,000!)
Hey, pilots! Don't despair! The same software that runs these
humungus flight sims is the exact very same software that you can
purchase on this website. If you don't mind sitting on your
kitchen chair instead of a $50,000 leather-covered Boeing seat, you
can fly endless approaches for the price of of an hour's flying in
a Cessna 172!
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