Here is a list of some of the geekiest things in the world: Flight sims. Kickstarter projects. Maker Faire projects. Battlestar Galactica fans who know the 1970s series as well as the 2000s version. And high school students who engineer projects in their spare time, in their garage.
Put all of that together, and you have possibly the most awesomely geeky thing in history: a Battlestar Galactica Viper flight simulator, constructed in the garage by a bunch of Bay Area high school kids, funded by Kickstarter and set to be unveiled this May, at Maker Faire 2012.
John Boyer, Alex Jacobson, Joseph DeRose, Sam Frank and Sam DeRose are the kids behind the simulator, which looks seriously hardcore (check it out in the video above) and plays around with gravity. So much so that you’d probably better hold off on the corn dogs until after you try it out.
The basic idea: mount the fuselage of a small plane (a Piper PA-28) on a motion-control platform capable of 360 degree rotation across two axes. “This design allows for considerably more motion around the pitch axis than commercial entertainment systems, such as those found at the Smithsionian Air and Space museum,” write the precocious high schoolers on their site.
With just under a month to go, the Kickstarter project funding the Viper has raised more than double its intended goal. No doubt some backers were enticed by the VIP option that offers to reconstruct the Viper in a location and time of your choosing.
Are you a budding Apollo or Starbuck? Would you want to give this simulator a shot? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Mashable
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