Space Shuttle Refurbish - Tulsa Air and Space Museum

[judemurban]

Hello, everyone! My name is Jude Urban. I am a senior EE at The University of Tulsa.

For my senior project this semester, we are refurbishing a Space Shuttle simulator at a local museum for kiddos. I am in charge of software for the project. There is a ribbon cutting ceremony in May, so time is a large factor to get the cockpit finished.

For this project, it is a 2 minute, final-approach into Edward's AFB. Ideally, we'd like to use Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have spent a bit of time looking into the software and what I can modify.

I'm new to cockpit building, so I am at a loss on where to start. Anyone willing to hop on a half-hour Zoom/Teams call and give me some starting pointers? You have no idea how much that would help my team!

Thank you all!

PS Any tips, pointers are much appreciated. I can provide more details about the project if need be.

[blueskydriver]

Can you post a lot of pics of the simulator inside and out please?

This way it'll give me an idea of how to help you out....

John

[ame]

Can you state what is working, and what is not?

If something is not working then maybe we can get it going.

Or maybe it's all working, but you just don't know how to fly a Space Shuttle.    Although, seriously, how hard can it be? It's not exactly rocket science.

Oh, wait...

[bernard S]

I know your project :-)    pm for a chat :-) ....

[KyleH]

From what I understand, Microsoft Flight Simulator is not ready for cockpit building yet. I'd suggest you look at either Lockheed's Prepar3d or X-plane for your software.

[blueskydriver]

And then there is this:

https://youtu.be/Mes-nPxir-4

John

[RayS]

Microsoft Flight Simulator is not ready for cockpit building yet

True that. I went down that road last year, hoping to dual-boot my sim, but the deeper I got, the more it became painfully apparent that 2020 is not even close.

Now, some folks are actually using 2020 in their sims, like James T. but most of that functionality was either added to by 3rd-party developers or configured as a wrapper to simulate what isn't native yet.

I'm currently backing out some of my 2020 efforts to restore full functionality in X-Plane.

[FredK]

Microsoft Flight Simulator is not ready for cockpit building yet

True that. I went down that road last year, hoping to dual-boot my sim, but the deeper I got, the more it became painfully apparent that 2020 is not even close.

Now, some folks are actually using 2020 in their sims, like James T. but most of that functionality was either added to by 3rd-party developers or configured as a wrapper to simulate what isn't native yet.

I'm currently backing out some of my 2020 efforts to restore full functionality in X-Plane.

Theoretically there is a way to achieve full functionality with MSFS2020.  By "theoretically" I mean I have not gone that rabbit hole...yet.

Such can be done using a "multichannel system" with a program called WideView (www.wideview.it). This setup employs multiple computers.  One computer is designated as the "server" and can run P3D with ProSim or SimAvionics etc.  This computer is not used for a visual display per se.  Typically three (or more) other computers are designated as "clients".  Each of these "clients" are used for visual display only...for example left/center/right views. Thus, you have the best of both worlds...the functionality of P3D and the visual quality of MSFS2020.

If you are not interested in a panaramic display you can simply configure a server running P3D with with a single client to run the MSFS2020 visual display only.

I do run a multichannel P3D config for my sim, but again I have not actually gone down this mixed configuration rabbit hole. It is something that I am contemplating though.

Fred K

[Trevor Hale]

I think of of any that I am aware I am the only person that has 100% moved to MSFS and although I am not happy with the flight characteristics.  I have no less sim functionality with 2020 then I had with P3D.

[ame]

I'm sure we'd all like to help, but OP seems to have gone AWOL. It makes for a very one-sided discussion...

[judemurban]

Sorry for the late response. Thank you all for responding.

Here are some images of the cockpit. It was built in the 80s and has been in storage for years. So a considerable amount of work will be spent restoring the interior.

Our team has been looking into X-Plane and we feel that this is our best option. However, a professional license is required for museums - which is $750 for each.

The two sides will be independent of each other, so we'll need two of everything.

We have also ordered a haptic response transducer known as Butt-Kicker.