Laurent Aigon is not a flight engineer, or a pilot. He’s a waiter, but he has a young son who’s obsessed with airplanes and Aigon is an airplane fan himself. So Aigon built him a fully functioning simulation of a 737 cockpit and put it in his bedroom.
How the hell did Aigon even pull this off? Well, essentially by just doing it:
And since 40 is a little late in life to start that process from scratch, he did the next best thing: Methodically order parts from the internet, at a cost tallying thousands of euros, until he had assembled a control panel and screen that functions precisely the way the real thing would.
Particularly heartwarming is the fact that, as part of putting together this simulation properly, Aigon wound up actually logging enough hours on the simulator to be a fairly decent pilot, and his work was so well done that it’s used by professionals to learn the ins and out. He’s even spoken at aircraft repair schools about building simulators.
Next up? Getting the professional certification to become a professional aircraft simulation builder. Or possibly building an actual 737, piece by piece.
(Lead image via Boeing)