Your own private 747 for only $230k

For those of you with $230k sitting around and a strong desire to pilot a 747, you've got something in common with Matthew Sheil. Matthew has been working for 10 years on the most realistic flight simulator known to man.

You might wonder what exactly has gone into this to justify the price tag. It's currently equipped with 13 quad-core Voodoo pc's that feed into a 42-inch Phillips Ambilight LCD. For input he relies on the X52 joystick and toggle from Saitek.

As if that doesn't give it enough of a realistic feel, it has a hydrolic motion system with its own pump room. That doesn't mean much to some of us, but to the pilot of this simulator, it means that he can feel every little bump on the runway, acceleration, and G-forces during turns. With a $230k price tag, the good thing is that you don't have to worry about crashing it.

Guy makes his own $230,000 Boeing 747 flight simulator [via ministryoftech]