At InfoComm, we found just the right toy for boys who have money to burn. But they better be prepared to have every kid and adult knocking on their door. That’s right, for a mere $180K you can be the proud owner of your own flight simulator.

Chris Chinnock
Sr. Analyst and Sr. Editor
of Insight Media

The flight simulator is called Genius and is offered by Equipe Electronics Ltd. (Sussex, UK; www.equipe-electronics.com. While $180K is pricey for us mere mortals, this same system cost $1.5M just two years ago. Does this mean the system will cost $20K in another two years? Maybe not, but the price declines are extremely impressive.

The Genius system consists of 3 projectors and 3 image generator engines. The image generator is the size of a small refrigerator while the curved screen and fighter seat consume about a 15×15 foot area. The SXGA-resolution projectors are edge blended to fill the curved screen, which spans a 120 x 40 degree field-of-view. Software includes 3 Channel Equipe Blue Sky Real-Time Software and ProMap Projector Mapping Unit, plus Equipe’s FLY-R Fast-Jet Simulation Real-Time Software and Equater Database Scenario Real-Time Environment. And don’t forget the audio system; 5.1 Channel 3D Sound System.

The simulation runs in true 60Hz real-time with stick to eye delays matching aircraft response times. Users can select game scenarios from a wide range of lighting and weather conditions and tactical difficulty to develop skills at any level. Interactive web base capabilities allow users to match their skills against other Genius pilots.

What’s Equipe catch phrase? - Join the Elite and become a Genius pilot. They got that right.