Since you never actually leave your living room, the OVO-4 home flight simulator lets you skip all the unpleasantness of modern air travel, while still enjoying the mind numbing boredom of being inside a commercial aircraft for hours at a time.
It’s a fully gimbaled enclosed simulator that’s able to twist and pitch, recreating the feeling of take offs, landings and worrying that your over-iced glass of Coke might spill. A trio of 24-inch LCD displays wrap around the cockpit, providing an immersive flight experience, while a dense cluster of gauges and dials will reinforce the idea that you probably don’t know what you’re doing.
The simulator is powered by Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, so it’s not like it’s running some proprietary software designed only for veteran pilots. And should you experience any mid-flight drama, an included external supervisor unit lets someone else keep an eye on your journey, stepping in when things get out of control. With a price tag in the neighbourhood of $US57,000 it seems like the perfect Christmas gift, except that it takes about 14 weeks for delivery, so you’ve missed the boat — err flight — for this year’s holidays. [OVO-4 via Chip Chick]