How to build a 747 – A WorldFlight Story

https://www.x-plane.com/2025/10/how-to-build-a-747-a-worldflight-story/

by hggh • 9 months ago

110 18 9 months ago

WillAdams4• 9 months ago

One reason the 747 has had such a long life is that when it was developed, the expectation was that it would soon be replaced by faster supersonic aircraft, so it was designed to be easily re-purposed/retrofitted to serve as a cargo aircraft --- that said, despite its vast cargo capacity, since it was the last major aircraft designed using pen and paper, if one were to print out a compleat set of blueprints/specifications and try to load them into one, it would probably be too heavy to take off.

It really was remarkable to fly in, esp. if one was fortunate enough to sit in the front rows of seats which had the wrap-around windows, or to be admitted to the cockpit as was often done for children when I flew from Japan to the U.S. on one (somewhere in my stuff is a set of plastic Pan Am wings which the pilot gave me).

hydrogen7800• 9 months ago

if one were to print out a compleat set of blueprints/specifications and try to load them into one, it would probably be too heavy to take off.

This expression might actually have it's origins in the 747. I've heard in aerospace that "you don't fly until the paper weighs more than the plane"

WillAdams4• 9 months ago

Pretty sure that's a much older expression and is more in reference to exhaustive paperwork and maintenance documentation.

GarnetFloride• 9 months ago

Considering the 747-400 carried 1,000,000 pounds (453,592.37 kilos) to cruising altitude, that might be in dispute.

bayouborne• 9 months ago

Expanding on your point, a while ago I read a great book on 747 development (by Joe Sutter, who was the lead engineer for the 747) and one surprising thing for me was that Boeing was very much into the supersonic race at the time. The SST project was Boeing's darling. As such it got the top-ranked technical talent assigned to the project, as well as the best tools, management oversight, etc. In contrast, the 747 dev teams got pretty much less of everything, including being dispersed over a large area of corporate buildings. Despite all of that, it still succeeded beyond anyone's expectations at the time.

WillAdams4• 9 months ago

Thanks!

Added that to my "Want to read" list on Goodreads.

thrownawaysz3• 9 months ago

This is awesome.

My current setup (sorry Airbus not Boeing) is more modest and probably I'd enjoy to upgrade it even more but after point it really does become a bottomless pit where the endgame will be buying a decommissioned plane lol

https://i.imgur.com/5uGHvz5.jpeg

qwertyuiop_• 9 months ago

This is awesome. Hey big time flight sim fan here. How can I DM you to learn your setup.

thrownawaysz3• 9 months ago

I can give you a list

Flight control https://www.thrustmaster.com/products/tca-captain-pack-x-air...

Flight control panel https://eu.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=925

Light switches https://www.puairkorea.com/product/pu-autopilot-addon/

MCDU https://eu.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=945

Rudders https://www.thrustmaster.com/products/tpr-thrustmaster-pendu...

Airbus Fenix remote on iPad https://fenixsim.com/a320/ + https://support.fenixsim.com/hc/en-us/articles/1245845642830...

16 key keyboard from Aliexpress, there are a lot of sellers

The rest are a beefy gaming PC

If you don't get the rudders then the whole thing (minus the gaming PC and iPad) can be bought for less than 1000€, even less on sale or second hand.

mandeepj2• 9 months ago

Here’s another one for A320 - https://youtu.be/rWaAcCikZdE

I came across it a few days and have been mesmerized with it ever since

ferguess_k2• 9 months ago

Shit this is so sick man. Do you work as a pilot?

thrownawaysz3• 9 months ago

No not at all, just always loved video games and especially simulators like flight sims so one summer I decided to finally build a more immersive setup

tinmith• 9 months ago

The people who build proper home cockpits inside real aircraft, especially interfacing with old aircraft hardware, are always very impressive. This takes a lot of time, dedication, and reverse engineering.

But it is also easy to get started at home. Using some 42 inch televisions and old Android tablets, you can replicate a lot of the immersion very easily and have fun, see if you like it. Check out my open source projects and free apps for X-Plane and more details on building your own immersive flight simulator experience: https://www.waynepiekarski.net/projects/xplane.htm

Although be aware, these projects tend to turn more into an adventure building than actually flying much :)

JKCalhoun• 9 months ago

Like a dumbass, I ordered 20 aircraft galley carts from some aircraft recycling company in Austin, Texas many years ago. I think they were like $10K for the palette of them (that eventually arrived in my driveway).

I mean good ones were going for $1K a pop on eBay. I'm going to be rich, right?

After the market seemed to fall out, I did manage to sell perhaps a little over half of them at cost. What a pain to package and ship.

One guy though, I recall, had a flight-sim thing going and wanted to serve drinks with the real deal.

(And I have perhaps 8 or so of them around the house. A couple were converted to standing desks and have computers on them, one is actually in the kitchen and has alcohol in it, a few in the garage holding parts…)

How to build a 747 – A WorldFlight Story

Related Stories