Junji Hirayama 's Home Flight Simulator

hifiandrew writes "I love seeing home mockups of cockpits for Flight Simulator like the recent Slashdot article of the person who used 13 Monitors and 9 PC's. But this one takes the cake for cockpit coolness! While doing a Google search for 747 cockpits, I ran across a web site of a person in Japan who has the coolest home cockpit for Flight Simulator I've ever seen. It has a perfect built-to-scale layout, backlit panels and even a projector for the scenery! All running on relatively modest PC hardware. I'm envious!"

Only in Japan...

[ArmenTanzarian]

could this guy do this and still have a wife at the end of it.

temp mirror

[abhisarda]

Projectj [netfirms.com]. Its only the main page.

Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[chia_monkey]

Ok...that was cool as shit. I want one (well I want a big house, enough money to build it, some time...).

But...would we in the US get in trouble for building such thing? "It could be used to train terrorists". Life used to be fun...

Microsoft flight sim

[Anonymous Coward]

Currently I'm contracting for NASA doing flight sims and we use the microsoft flight sim as a reference for the layout of our 777 cockpit. I mean its as real as your going to get without being in a real cockpit.

flight simulators & terrorists

[fireduck]

don't know about terrorists, but we can definitely lump flight simulators into the same category as all those FPS games that lead to violent behavior [exn.ca]...

Holy Fucking Shit!

[Microsift]

Assuming the linked-to article is true, doesn't it seem inexcusable that 19 people got on to U.S. airliners with knife-like implements two years later?

Before 9/11, most rock concerts had better security than airports.

Re:Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[Cpt_Corelli]

I was going to post something about how long it would take before some american shouts "terrorist training facility" but someone beat me to it.

Might just as well outlaw driving simulators too. And hey, have you seen the new The Sims game?

Re:Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[arkane1234]

Might just as well outlaw driving simulators too.

Everyone knows that Grand Theft Auto is really a terrorist training software. :)

Re:Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[mnemonic_]

No, you won't get in trouble. There are plenty of simulation cockpit projects going on by sim players in the U.S. One of them is actually being built using an old F-15 cockpit. Building 'pits is fairly well known in the sim community, and I don't think I've ever heard of people being worried about getting into any kind of trouble.

Outlawing the construction of cockpits for flight sims would be ridiculous, and is something I highly doubt will ever happen.

Re:Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[Becquerel]

Outlawing the construction of cockpits for flight sims would be ridiculous, and is something I highly doubt will ever happen.

You might have said the same about renaming french fries a year ago....only in America.

Don't ask why that site's down

[Bananenrepublik]

Maybe I'll get killed for telling you, but there are truths more important than my life:
The slashdot effect has now officially become a means of ensuring national security. In fact, the submitter works for the Department of Internet and airspace security.

Flight Sims as Terrorist Training Tools

[DG]

All the talk about flight sims used to help train terrorists - at least, for the people not just joking - is mostly wasted worry.

Here's why: no way, no how will that tactic of "hijack plane, crash into structure" ever work again.

The only reason it worked the first time was that it was so unexpected. Previously, the MO of a plane hijacking was to fly to some remote location and hold the passengers for ransom. As such, your best chance for survival as a passenger was to lay low, not attract attention to yourself, and wait for either rescue or for the hijackers to get what they wanted.

The more passive you were, the better things were likely to turn out for you.

But those days are now irrovocably GONE. Now anybody who even makes the slightest move towards the cockpit is likely to be dogpiled by every passenger on the plane, no matter what weapon the hijacker might be carrying.

In fact, the days of the "passive hijackee" were over before all the 9/11 planes were out of the air. The news of the change in tactics spread SO quickly that the passengers on Flight 51 (?) prevented the final plane from reaching its target.

The only way a hijacker can get ahold of a plane these days would be to buy/rent it - and you can be damned sure that the people holding the keys are being VERY dilligent about who can get their hands on something large enough to cause any real damage.

That's a trick that would only work once.

DG

Re:Flight Sims as Terrorist Training Tools

[br0ck]

The 727 was found on June 28 [guardian.co.uk].

Re:Cool...but would we get in trouble?

[fireman sam]

DMCA v's DeCSS / Mod chips

wow

[CowBovNeal]

You know you've been slashdotted when your cockpit simulator crashes without even taking off.

re: wow

[ed.han]

i guess this would be the appropriate time to remmark:

"all your bandwidth are belong to us!"--slashdot

ed

With us or...

[CGP314]

Rummy to Bush: Looks like a terrorist training cell to me.

Bush: Let's get 'im.

Wow cool! (Sorry 'bout that website though....)

[Mantrid]

This is truly amazing! I can't imagine how many hours something like this must've took. They even used it for a TV show according to his site. I wonder what his real job is? Maybe it should be set designer...

(too bad about that website of his though, it's a shame really...)

Re:Wow cool! (Sorry 'bout that website though....)

[FluxCapacitator]

Yeah, I watched the Japanese TV show it was in. The cockpit featured in nearly every episode. I actually thought it was either an extremely expensive prop, one of those flight training simulators, or part of the real thing. Little did I know it was made by some dude in his backyard ^^;

Actually, this is Japan so it was probably takes up his whole living room...

Wow...

[Pig Hogger]

Now imagine a beo... Nah. Wouln't be good, given the current slump in the airline industry...

What are your favorite flight sim games?

[ACK!!]

Come on, I have been out of the scene for awhile.

So, give it up.

What is the best game for the money out there today?

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Aahz]

IL2 Forgotten Battles, Of course I cant stand boring ass civilian flight sims. "Let me set my autopilot and go to sleep." "When I wake up I can land in Cleavland." Boooooring

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[arkane1234]

Then don't set autopilot, geez...

That's about like buying a lamborghini (with cruise control.......?), getting up to highway speed and setting cruise control, then complaining because it's a boring drive.

Live a little, take it off autopilot ;)

Then get up to 30k+ altitude, drop the nose to 50+ degrees negative, and watch the land scream up to you in realistic graphics. Everyone knows that's what you do on a flight sim.
=)

Flightgear

[nuggz]

For the money, flightgear.
Hard to argue with free.

I just need a decent video card to handle it properly.

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

X-Plane. Period. Available here [x-plane.com]. It does it all, it's hackable, there are tons of free data files on the 'net you can download - new planes, scenery, etc.

For a few dollars more you can get the Mars scenery discs and fly a plane on Mars.

And the price is very reasonable compared to some other offerings.

Dang, just checked the site and saw that there is a version 7 out, guess I need to upgrade... again...

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[The_K4]

Ok, now I understand that all it's really changing the is scenery, but "fly a plane on Mars"? The atmosphere is WAY too thin for that, most planes would never get off the ground! :( That's why I stopped playing flight sims, the all had no respect for physics. The lift/thrust/drag ratios are the same at sea level and 50K feet which just isn't true. I want a game with a REAL physics engine (and a space flight sim that really knew physics would be even better).

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[iMMersE]

It has a realistic physics engine - You can't just fly any plane on Mars, as Austin Meyer, author of X-Plane, writes himself [x-plane.com] ... Get more of the hard sell of the flight engine here [x-plane.com].

X-plane is the sim for you then.

[ScottGant]

They explain all this about Mars in their sim...which is why you can't fly just any plane there. Most of the ones are rocket powered.

They even include a shuttle re-entry from true orbit down to the landing at Edwards...including the wild "S" turns to slow down.

Plus X-plane is Open-GL based and works both with OSX and WinXP/NT.

Their flight model is by far the best.

Be sure to check it out, they also have a downloadable demo.

Re:X-plane is the sim for you then.

[kalidasa]

If it works on Linux too, I'm hooked. I SO want something at least as good as MSFS2K2 for Linux and OS X. Please say it at least works on Wine.

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Xerithane]

Ok, now I understand that all it's really changing the is scenery, but "fly a plane on Mars"? The atmosphere is WAY too thin for that, most planes would never get off the ground! :( That's why I stopped playing flight sims, the all had no respect for physics. The lift/thrust/drag ratios are the same at sea level and 50K feet which just isn't true. I want a game with a REAL physics engine (and a space flight sim that really knew physics would be even better

You can fly a plane on mars. See here. [msss.com]

There are

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[NickFitz]

If you look here [x-plane.com], you'll find that XPlane has FAA approval for use in pilot training - the only consumer-level flight sim so far to achieve this.

And just to add to the fun, it can get real-time weather info off the net and add that in to your scenery :-)

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Will_Malverson]

I want a game with a REAL physics engine (and a space flight sim that really knew physics would be even better).

You'll love Orbiter [orbitersim.com]. It's even free!

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[The_K4]

Ok, that looks really cool. Thank you. I guess i'm spending this weekend getting a windows box up and running for that. :)

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[mnemonic_]

Not everyone likes civilian sims. Most people want some combat, and X-Plane's combat features are extremely rudimentary to say the least.

And what "other offerings" is X-Plane priced more reasonably than?

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Last I saw in a store, the MS Flight Sim 2003 Professional Edition was going for something outrageous like $79.95 which is a lot of money in my opinion. It's probably available cheaper, but $80 for a game published my Microsoft?

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Moose4]

MS Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight is going for about US$55 in stores now. FS2004 has pretty damn nice eye candy and an interesting selection of historic aircraft (Spirit of St. Louis, Douglas DC-3, Lockheed Vega 5, DH.88 Comet, Vickers Vimy) along with the usual FS collection of Cessnas, Learjet 45, Boeing heavy iron, etc. The weather and default terrain are impressive.

X-Plane's flight model pwns FS2004's in terms of realism, but you can head down to the store and pick up FS2004 now for les

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

And as always, there are cracks available, at least for X-Plane, that will let you play without having the CD in the drive. Not that I would ever suggest or use such a crack, but I *hate* having to find a key disc just to play a game, especially since there are times I'll go for 3 or 4 months between playings, which means I have to dig through layers and layers of crap on my desk.

I purchased X-Plane v5.x at a used-book store that carries new and used software as well. They had multiple, unopened copies

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Zerbey]

Oh alright, I'll bite. Falcon 3.0 was excellent, the best flightsim I've ever played (very dated now of course). Falcon 4.0 was a disappointing buggy pile of doo doo.

The latest MS flight simulators are very impressive as well, and that's coming from a Linux user :-)

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[mnemonic_]

Falcon 4.0 isn't buggy anymore with the 1.08 patch and the latest version of the SuperPak project. It also has better graphics (trees, filtered 32-bit object textures, improved models and textures), runs faster (SSE, memory leak fixes, general optimization), and a lot more features (all flight models tweaked, much more detailed avionics, etc.).

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Zerbey]

Is it happy in XP? And what's the URL? I'm willing to give it another chance.

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Glock27]

I'm willing to give it another chance.

I had trouble getting it to work ~1 year ago, but that was before these latest patches were available. I'm pretty sure that they are XP-friendly.

I need to find the time to give it a shot again myself. :-)

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[mnemonic_]

"Best" means different things for everyone. The "best" simulation might be the easiest one to learn, or the most realistic one, or the one with the best graphics, or the one which has the most accurate representation of an F-16, or a million other things.

Il-2 Sturmovik FB is probably one of the "best" combat simulations in terms of accurate flight modeling, AI, graphics and selection of aircraft. It's not so hard to learn due to it being a WW2 sim, no complex avionics or procedures. You will have to pra

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[Cpt_Kirks]

Mmmm, a RealDoll [realdoll.com] in a 60's style stewardess uniform...

Re:What are your favorite flight sim games?

[FluxCapacitator]

Okay, now that is just plain wrong. How much are they? ^^

google cache

[Anonymous Coward]

thumbnail images [google.co.uk] and the (pretty lame) webpage [google.co.uk]

Re:google cache

[seizer]

Alternatively, the Wayback Machine has it with some images, but much older:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020219202626/www.waka yamanet.or.jp/jun/fs/glareshield-main-e.html [archive.org]

Gogle is /.ed!

[axxackall]

I cannot belive, but Google cannot answer! Wow! Finally we've managed to /. Google! Who's next?

Google caches the text only!

[heironymouscoward]

And it is (surprise) the images that cause the server to die.

Google Cache!

[KiranWolf]

Here's a Google Cache [216.239.39.104] for it.

Modest Hardware?

[Yebyen]

Looks like the flight simulator isn't the only thing running on fairly modest hardware... slashdotted already :)

Suspicious

[Agamous Child]

Anyone know why Andrew was looking up 747 cockpits? Seems like a surefire way to set-off the begin_full_tracking() function at TIA.

Re:Suspicious

[Joseph Wharton]

Maybe he was working on some cockpit graphics for X-Plane [x-plane.com].

Re:Suspicious

[GunFodder]

Maybe he was trying to divert attention away from his homemade fusion bomb.

begin_full_tracking()

[Phronesis]

That's cool. Then when his shares on the terrorism futures market spike, he can IPO.

I have my 747 simulator too

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I duct-taped my window to leave a very small oval hole about 1m off the ground, put 3 uncomfortable, too narrow chair right next to it, put a large cupboard 30cm in front of them, cranked up the A/C to 15 degrees, and put the stereo's volume at maximum on an empty radio frequency.

To simulate a flight, I sit on the chair immediately by the window for eight hours, ask an overweight friend to sit right next to me, and ask my wife to come around every two hours with a trolley to serve us shitty coffee.

It's a very accurate simulation of a 747, and it's much cheaper than all those fancy computer displays and joysticks.

Re:I have my 747 simulator too

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

oh, and I forgot the deluxe version where I push the cupboard 50cm further away and write EXIT in big letters on the duct-tape ...

Re:I have my 747 simulator too

[operagost]

Mine is like yours, except I occasionally have my friend put a towel on his head and try to hijack my "plane", armed with a nail file.. Then I kick his ass.

Re:I have my 747 simulator too

[spu]

You forgot about the screaming kid behind you that should be kicking the back of your seat.

Re:I have my 747 simulator too

[smithmc]

cranked up the A/C to 15 degrees

Yeah, I wish. Seems like the air on flights these days keeps getting more and more stale... :-/

The best bit about flying it

[lewko]

You can join the Mile High Club in the adjacent double bedroom with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe...

Re:The best bit about flying it

[arkane1234]

Yep..that's exactly right ;)
you can change clothes in the middle of the flight!

Aggggghhhh!

[eyepeepackets]

The sound of the previously happy flight simulator person as his little server takes a ***CRUSHING*** blow from half a gazillion /.ers!

Goodbye little server. *sniff* R.I.P.

Re:Aggggghhhh!

[eyepeepackets]

"...but he got redundant while you got funny. how does that work?"

I truely don't know. Chalk it up to the /. Gods smiling favorably upon me at that particular moment.

fantasy flight simulators

[nounderscores]

Wow, well done.

Now what would happen if somebody took that concept and applied it to parsec [parsec.org] or the wing commander style flight sims?

I know mech warrior had a nifty little cockpit sim for mall arcade action, but nothing ever had an emersive screen that made your eyes focus on the middle distance.

Throw in 3d glasses, a big subwoofer and hydraulics from an old massage bed while you're at it.

Re:fantasy flight simulators

[Quarters]

Actually, the BattleTech Center pods (the last generation---the roundish ones) passed their display output through the same optics used in F16 HUDs. The purpose was to impose a psuedo 3D effect on the output so that you would focus on things that were 'deeper' into the screen. It worked amazingly well, actually.

Re:fantasy flight simulators

[danila]

I have an even better idea. Take a robot from Aliens in which Ripley fought the queen, make it somewhat operational (no need to actually walk), so that you can get in it and control it. Place a concave screen in front of you, stereo glasses, good sound system and hydraulics. There is no need to put the player inside a pod, he should be as close to the simulated action as possible.

It's still quite difficult to simulate actual walking experience, although some [virtusphere.com] have come quite close, so may be my idea is a go

MAYDAY!

[GodHead]

Slash-deaded.

I wonder if a face mask just dropped from the celing..

Better yet.....

[UnkyHerb]

Think of the possibilites using xinerama with 4 LCD Projectors, a round white room, and a special version of Vice City!!!!

go at it yourself

[cr@ckwhore]

If you're a flight sim nut and want to build your own home cockpit, start at www.projectmagenta.com

pathalogically geeky

[tiled_rainbows]

of all the many flavours of geekdom, I think flight sim geeks seem to be the most pathalogically geeky. There was this guy at my university who had a website where you could book flights on his virtual airline. He'd designed the livery of this airline and had made skins for his fleet of planes. If you booked a ticket (don't know if anyone did) he would fly the route and, if you wanted, give you a VHS tape of the view from the seat, to prove that he'd done it. He was one of the scariest people I'd ever met.

Re:pathalogically geeky

[CdnYoda]

Nothing, you have seen! :-)

My X-wing fighter will run circles around your planes.

Of course, sometimes I don't even need a plane!

The power of the imagination is more powerful than any computer simulation.

Spoken, I have!

Re:pathalogically geeky

[ediron2]

There was this guy at my university who had a website where you could book flights on his virtual airline. He'd designed the livery of this airline and had made skins for his fleet of planes. If you booked a ticket (don't know if anyone did) he would fly the route and, if you wanted, give you a VHS tape of the view from the seat, to prove that he'd done it. He was one of the scariest people I'd ever met.

Post this pAirline's URL... let's see how he handles being slashdotted. Nothin' like 20,000 requests

Re:pathalogically geeky

[sanchny]

Just like every hobby, some people will take it more seriously than others. I could give a million examples of geeks in their respective hobbies- video games, Fantasy cosplaying, computers, programming, Britney Spears, TV shows (Simpsons geeks come to mind), movies, cars, Slashdot, science- anything. You name it- if people derive entertainment value from it, there will be some who are geekiers than others.

And it's a matter of difference of opinion whether someone's obsession is pathological. You think J

Not pathologically geeky

[No Such Agency]

Where's the bad? The guy was having fun (I assume), and had the extra realism & challenge of not choosing where he was flying to (if anyone took him up on the offer that is). "Pathological", maybe, but only if you think that a very weird hobby = disease. It's not like he was out raping nuns or something.

Re:Not pathologically geeky

[tiled_rainbows]

Fair point, and this reply applies equally well to sanchny's similar post.

I wouldn't want to stop this guy (or other guys with similarly weird hobbies) doing their thing, let alone slashdot his site (as someone above suggests) to "punish" him for his socially unacceptable pasttime. If that's the way you floats your boat, then that's the way you floats your boat.

However, all this is fine in theory, but I found actually meeting the guy and being confronted with the sheer obsessiveness of his obsession a

Nooo!

[FrostedWheat]

I am building Boeing 747-400 type "My Cockpit " for flight simulators

"My Cockpit"? I bet he has a briefcase with the label "My Documents" on it.

Re:Nooo!

[MojoMonkey]

Just be glad he didn't name it "Super Happy Fun Cockpit"

Re:Nooo!

[richie2000]

Do not taunt the Super Happy Fun Cockpit!

Macintosh Flight Sim 1.0

[WC as Kato]

What's with geeks now-a-days? I used to fly with MS Flight Sim on my Mac Plus which had 1mb of RAM, 1 floppy drive and no hard drive. Looking back at that, it seems amazing that a flight sim was even possible. It had 1-bit color but it was high res (in comparison to CGA or EGA graphics)!

Some Photos

[Noctilux]

I don't normally have anything to contribute to Slashdot, but I have some detailed photos [availabledark.com] on my website of a 747-400, including the cockpit. Enjoy.

Uh oh

[davew2040]

Bad news for this guy. His ISP's going to demand that he commit hari kari now :~(

Yeah, right.

[Anonymous Coward]

"... All running on relatively modest PC hardware. I'm envious!"

in other words,

"I'll teach you to show off. Take THAT, webserver!"

"Good Luck"

[The Wing Lover]

The drama that used his simulator in the set, "Good Luck!", is being posted, one episode every couple of weeks, in alt.binaries.multimedia.japan. They're subtitled in English.

Would this...

[Zebra_X]

slashdoting of an international server be considered an "international incident". The server in question is to some extent being 'violated'.

Pictures of other homemade cockpits

[emilng]

Links to other projects [avsim.com]

Tons of pictures of other pretty cool looking homemade cockpits.

Relatively modest

[Virtex]

All running on relatively modest PC hardware. I'm envious!

No need to be envious. For a small sum of money, you too can be running on relatively modest PC hardware!

How about a real cockpit

[Ro'que]

These guys have a real [747cockpit.com] 747 cockpit they're using as a flight simulator.

Is real flying too scary?

[woom]

Why don't all these guys who spend b i g bucks on a flightsim mock-up just get a pilots licence? It's way more fun, 100% real and much cheaper. Heck, some of these guys could actually buy a real plane for less than they spend on the computers alone.

Re: Is real flying too scary?

[JimPooley]

woom, you took the words right out of my mouth. Spending loads of money on a flight sim is just too sad for words (I'll excuse them if they have some major illness, disability or a pathological fear of flying).

More people should try flying. It's cool, it's challenging, and you can actually go places without getting stuck in traffic!

One word: Freedom.

[sanchny]

There are a lot of reasons why people build such simulators, and none of these have to do with money. The main reason is freedom. With simulators, you have the freedom to do whatever you want without consequences.

- Freedom to fly from anywhere you want, instantly.
- Freedom to fly whatever plane you want.
- Freedom to disobey as many rules and laws as you want: FAA regulations, laws of physics, any international laws.
- Freedom to stop whenever you want, from the comfort of your own home. If you suddenl

Re: Is real flying too scary?

[blincoln]

Not everyone is interested in flying the type of plane a regular person can afford.

Re: Is real flying too scary?

[Zaffle]

Why don't all these guys who spend b i g bucks on a flightsim mock-up just get a pilots licence? It's way more fun, 100% real and much cheaper. Heck, some of these guys could actually buy a real plane for less than they spend on the computers alone.

Sheesh!

Cheaper than real flying?

Its betweeen $60-$100/hr to rent a cessna to fly. And thats just a piddly single engine job.

Flight Sims have their definate place. There a a HUGE number of reasons why you would spend this much on a flight sim. If I were to

Re: Is real flying too scary?

[Zaffle]

Still, flying a "piddly single engine" irl beats anything you can do with flight simulator (atleast indoors). It's like comparing pr0n with the real thing (a really really bad comparsion considering this is slashdot...).

Agreed, however, when you're sick of forking over large chunks of your paycheck for said engine, you can return home and sit up front in the cockpit of a 747-400 and fly from New York to London. All for arround the same price as a couple of hours of real flying.

I use to fly, but got to

4 important questions

[phorm]

a) How much did it cost (component-wise). Geeze even a decent flight-style joystick is still expensive nowadays.

b) How long did it take to make?

c) What do you do for a living (running with "b", to see what skills he had to make this)

d) Will you design private cockpits, and for how much??

/. effect...

[FurryFeet]

I think his server crashed and burned...

off topic

[Flabby Boohoo]

Does anyone know why Microsoft's website is down?

Re:.deb packages?

[mausmalone]

I was under the impression he was using MS Flight Simulator... but since it's been slashdotted into an alternate dimension, I have no way of checking that.

Re:Queue Jokes

[Dan-DAFC]

Why do we have to queue them? Can't we have them all at once?

Re:Queue Jokes

[fenix down]

No you fool! You'll kill us all!

Mech Simulator?

[Channard]

If only this guy got working a mech cockpit, to go with the X-Box's Steel Batallion game. Now that'd I'd definitely go for. Half of the work's already been done with the ludicrously complicated controller that comes with the game.