The flight simulator cockpit idea grew from just a dashboard with a couple seats in front of it, to a two seat “cabin” to increase realism, to a four seat cabin to accommodate three kids and a grandpa.  But if I’m going to take it that far, I might as well take it all the way, turn it into the most amazingly cool “play house” for grandkids, ever.

I guess I’ve wanted to build something like this since I was in first grade, when my parents let us assemble all the cardboard from the kitchen remodeling into our first space ship. My friend Greg and I built another one in his basement when I was in 5th (or 6th?) grade. That one featured battery powered lighting, and a dashboard with Christmas tree lights and a radar scope made from a clock motor and rotating paper plate.  Then I grew up, and didn’t have time to make cardboard spaceships anymore.  

So now that I have time again, it’s going to be a hardboard spaceship instead! The design now includes a nose, an “engine”, and wings and a tail, as shown above. It’s going to look a bit like a small version of this – the Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar. (I might even use this design for the wings and vertical stabilizers.)

I already have all the stuff I need:

  • Six 4×8 sheets of whiteboard material
  • A 4×8 sheet of plexiglass
  • Two sheets of 1″ foam
    (covered on one side with aluminum foil)
  • A bunch of 2×2’s, hinges, screws, etc.
This will still be built on my simulator cockpit , so it will work with the three 50″ TVs and touch-screen dashboard and joysticks/pedals/throttles and stuff. If you faced it toward a white wall with a 10 foot by 6 foot display from a projector, it would still be a great way to play flight simulator and driving games without the $1K worth of LCD displays.  But I think it will be fun even without any of the electronics. I’m planning to turn this design (and pics from building it) into an instructable so other people can easily build their own.
Outside view,
Dimensions
Cockpit and frame
Parts List
The pile of parts - it's really happening!

Leave a Reply

Related Posts