The Flight Simulator

The earliest aircraft didn’t have cockpits. Orville and Wilbur Wright lay prone on the bottom plane (or wing) of the Wright Flyer in 1903. Future innovations allowed the pilots to sit upright on the bottom wing, but there was still no cockpit, and pilots didn’t wear seatbelts, either. Although most of the aircraft in the FlghtProSim consist of flight simulator cockpit, they do include a couple of these pioneer aircraft, including the Wright Flyer and the Santos-Dumont 14bis.

It was not until 1913 (after several dozens of aircraft designs had taken to the air) that a plane was given a cockpit, in Igor Sikorsky’s airplane The Grand. After that, cockpits became prevalent, but most of them were open to the sky, including those of WWI fighters and scout planes. Even in the 1920s, passenger planes had enclosed cabins for the passengers, while the pilots flew in open cockpits. By the 1950s, however, closed cockpits were the rule rather than the exception.

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To prepare a flight simulator cockpit, there are a few things the operator can do to make it as realistic as possible, assuming the software being used supports such activities. The software, FlightProSim supports all the technology needed to give its users the ultimate experience in an aircraft simulator.

For those on a budget, let me just say that it is possible to fly the aircraft included with FlightProSIm using just the keyboard alone, for full enjoyment various other accessories should be purchased. At the very least a joystick is necessary. Also on the market is a yoke, which can be hooked up to a throttle box and rudder pedals. Each of these items costs about a hundred dollars, new and fresh out of the box, although it may be possible to get them from such sites as Ebay for less money.

By using a joystick and rudder pedals, a pretty close approximation of a flight simulator cockpit can be achieved. However, there’s more that can be done. FlightProSim allows the user to connect multiple instances of the program together to display different views of the simulation.  So the user can view the aircraft panel displayed on a screen right in front of him, while the view forward is displayed on a separate screen or using a projector.  Given enough hardware, according to the program’s literature, and “you can create sophisticated simulation environments with mock-up cockpits, panels, multiple views, and even a separate control station allowing an instructor to fail instruments, change the weather etc. An example of this is the 747 cockpit project.”

In addition, FlightProSIm is networkable, so other flight simulator cockpit enthusiasts can get together and practice flying in formation.

FlightProSim offers over 20,000 real-life airports, and the entire world of scenery over which to fly. From the flight simulator cockpit, pilots can set the type of weather they want to fly through, the seasons of the year and the time of day. And if they want to challenge themselves by setting up instruments to fail, they can do that too. Practically anything a pilot wants to do can be done in FlightProSim.

Click Here to Download the Ultimate Flight Simulator

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