-Design-

Idea

My priorities for the design were to make it as cheap as possible and to recycle many things I had around my house, but at the same time making it worth the effort.  It's a single seat cockpit design; here are some of the features:

• Fresnel Lens (refer to the materials section for more info)
• Lighted working cockpit buttons, and switches
• Joystick, throttle lever, and pedals
• Will use the laptop screen for 6 MFD's as well as for the keyboard, and a computer monitor for the outside view
• Keypad for precision RCS controls
• Sound system for recreating the vibrations and loud sounds of a burn
• Closed cockpit

Renders

(Click for larger picture)

Details

Here I explain the pictures:

• It is going to be composed of wood and foam board.  The wood is necessary to sustain the heavy weight of the pilot and the monitor.  The foam board will encase the cockpit and form the panel.

• In the second render you can see 3 windows.  Only the middle one will work, the side ones will be black and only for decoration.

• The middle window has the fresnel lens attatched to it,  and the monitor (the grey cube in the second render) is just placed on top of the shelf on the outside and is easily removed.  The fresnel lens will make the eyes focus outside the cockpit, and it will feel as if looking out a window.

• Speakers will be placed under the seat, and an airplane headset will be available to protect the hearing while making a burn

• Although not showing on the renders, on the left wall of the cockpit there is going to be an opening for the screen of the laptop, where 6 MFD's will be visible, and below an opening for the keyboard.

• On the panel, rectangular, circular and square lighted buttons of different colors will be placed for these functions:  all 7 autopilots, HUD mode, Undock, Nosecone open/close, Acelleration, Gears up or down,  TurboPump, Translation/Rotation RCS, and trims

• Switches will be placed for turning on/off aerobrakes, retro engines, RCS fine control, and button lights.

• On the right there will be a joystick for pitch and roll, on the left a throttle lever with two buttons for the hover engine, and on the feet pedals for yaw and wheelbrakes.