A group of five students, ranging from 8th to 12th grade, want you to gun down virtual toasters using a functional Colonial Viper they engineered from a frakking airplane fuselage.
I know this makes me a bit of an old jealous grump, but sometimes it’s hard to look at people much younger than you performing mind-blowing deeds you’ll never accomplish. Such is the case with what high-schooler Sam DeRose and his crackerjack squad of teenaged brainiacs are doing right now while people like you and me are stuck with nothing to do but ogle at it. The project is ambitious: construct a replica of the famous Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica from a repurposed Piper aircraft, give it a full range of both X and Y axis motion, and let people play a fully customized BSG flight sim from the inside.
The Viper is being constructed for California’s Maker Faire, which is basically an event designed to let overly-talented people like Sam and his crew create cool stuff, then give the plebs a common place to come see it.
The engineering team behind the flight sim isn’t quite finished with it yet but, depending on funding, hopes to have things ready in time for the Faire. Right now, the total project budget is $19,000, with $12,000 of that already covered by private investors, corporate sponsorship, and an ongoing Kickstarter project. If the kids can bridge the gap, they’ll finish assembly and premiere it in May.
While none of the screens or software seem to have been installed yet, the cockpit of this beast looks completely good to go. Check the 2:27 mark of the video above to see it in action.
Source: Geek.com
