.The Construction of Rocket Mk-III

























September 10, 2004,

This is a picture of a Combat flight simulator cockpit that I am building. It is sitting upside down in my
studio and what you see is the tail cone. The round hole on the under belly is the exhaust for the
computer. The square hole on the bottom of the left skid is where power and data cable will enter
the simulator. I just finished polishing the aluminium skin and will turn the cockpit over and work on
the top.






























September 11, 2004,

Here is the Simpit on its wings/legs, from 3/4 back, the door is closed. It is perfectly cylindrical in
section and elliptical in plan/elevation. The structure is 3/8 x 3/4 Poplar longerons on 3/4" Plywood
frames the aluminium plates are riveted directly to the wood. I still have a few aluminium plates to
install on the left. The rectangular hole on the left will be the opening for loading Cd's it will open
like an air brake. My son calls this machine the Rocket ship, I just call it the Rocket.


























Here is a view of the cockpit with the door open you can see that the monitor ( elegance oblige) will
be buried in the middle of the instrument panel,  you can also see some of the instruments
openings.

The instruments will be fakes and will serve as be switches to control the game; for example
pressing on  the center of the gyro compass will bring the map, pressing on different areas of the
artificial horizon will bring different views. F1, F2, F3... Etc.  On the right side of the pit,  the
squarish  boxy thing will be a Spitfire style compass that will be used as a mouse. I will try to make
everything look like real instruments, glass faced lighted & recessed.


























This picture shows a better view of the instrument panel, on the left is the power quadrant, The
stick is inspired by a I-16 one. Most of my work in the next 2 months will be  instruments, electronics
computer and Control systems , The controls, will be made of steel, aluminium on ball bearings. I
will try my best to recreate the forces of a real stick and add a real trim wheel.




















September 14, 2004

Here are a few pictures of the model, they show the final shape of the Rocket



















































September 18, 2004



































I finally finished the controls:

#1   the control column.                                    #2  steel reinforcing plates.
#3   the aileron axis                                           #4  bearings and collars.
#5   the elevator control push rod.                     #6  is the control horn
#7   Elevator bracket                                         #8  Support bracket for potentiometer (elevator)
#9   Aileron control horn                                   #10 Potentiometer and its support brackets (ailerons)
#11 Aileron bracket                                          #11 Rubber



September 25, 2004


I redid the control stick using a sandwich of aluminium and Mahogany like a race car steering
wheel, it will be painted black and perhaps the handle will be wrapped with leather The throttle
quadrant is also nearing completion.































Here it is all apart

                                                               And assembled, note that the lever is for wheel brakes




















The Throttle body is all painted and assembled; I am still missing some switches. The round
openings on the top will receive back lighted graphics.


September 28, 2004

Rudder pedals are finished, they are on a ball bearing tray and can be adjusted 18" for pilots from
4'10" to 6'4". One can see the "T" handle that unlocks it





























October 5, 2004

The control stick is all finished and wired,








































Construction of the instrument panel,

































Here are the raw material used, 1/4" plywood, aluminium, Plexiglas, it is just a matter to cut all the
pieces, paint them and screw them together. The instrument faces are designed in Illustrator and
printed on a plastic film.

























Finished instrument panel, just missing the gear and flaps levers.

















































Close up, it shows some of the simulation controls embedded inside the instruments, simple and
efficient.


October 7, 2004.

This is the mouse it will sit on the right side of the cockpit ,opposite the throttle quadrant. I am still
looking to change the ball for a compass one . It is very hard to find























October 12, 2004

Here is the housing for a head tracking device called Trackir-3,






















And where it will be installed

























I guess it starts to look more and more like a nightmare machine from the 30's


October, 21 2004

The power quadrant is finished.































One can see that some graphics are lit, Power lever is on a potentiometer, while the two others are
double switches that will increase or decrease prop and mixture in 10% increments with each click. I
would have preferred potentiometers but because some of the best simulators work this way i had
no choice. The button in front of the prop lever is the constant speed propeller on off switch, the
red one at the end will re-center the track-IR device and the two black ones can be programmed for
the 2 most used left hand switches.

October 23,2004

The power box is finished wired and installed.


















It sits on the right hand side of the cockpit and controls 2 things;

MAIN POWER acts as a "ON" or as a cutoff for all power entering the rocket. Flipping this switch off
is like unplugging everything.  

CPU POWER is to turn on the computer, a yellow LED behind the word CPU will indicate how it is
doing.

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