 |
| L-1011 Trainer Main Instrument Panel - Pre-Installation |
|
Come January we are going to start the installation of a Delta Airlines L-1011 trainer at the National Museum of Commercial Aviation here in Atlanta. I went to the storage unit where the L-1011 trainer is currently stored to take an inventory of the pieces that will be moved to the simulator room that we have prepared at the museum. The image above shows the main instrument panel with the glare shield. Many of the instruments on the trainer are "simulated" instruments which are nothing more than empty shells with pictures in them. We will, of course, replace all the simulated instruments with the real flight hardware that I have worked on over the last few months and years.
This is a very exciting phase in the L-1011 project because over the next few months the L-1011 simulator I have been working on will finally become an actual device that the museum will use as an education tool for young people as well as an experience for anybody who has a passion for wanting to fly a L-1011 in the simulator. The museum will offer guided tours on the simulator once it is open for business.
Anyway, back to the other components. The image below shows the upper and the lower section of the second officer station as it sits in storage:
 |
| L-1011 Trainer - SO Station Upper Section - Pre-Installation |
 |
| L-1011 Trainer - SO Station Lower Section - Pre-Installation |
|
The center pedestal below has the necessary motors mounted for the DLC operation as well as the Auto Spoilers and the Throttles. Much of the original cabling of the trainer can be re-used and will be directly interfacing with our I/O cards, synchro cards and for some of the instrumentation also with the ARINC 429 interface. Below is an image of the throttle quadrant with the center and forward electronics panels. All instruments that you see mounted on the pedestal are simulated but will be replaced with working devices such as the Litton LTN-72RL units that I am currently working on:
 |
| L-1011 Trainer Center Pedestal - Pre-Installation |
The overhead panel and the the circuit breaker panel 1, 2 and 3 come as one piece. The image below shows the overhead panel in storage prior to moving it to the museum for installation and instrumentation retrofit.
 |
| L-1011 Trainer Overhead Panel and CB1, CB2 and CB3 panels - Pre-Installation |
Over the next two weeks we will first move the platform for the trainer from storage to the simulator room at the museum. The pedestal is made from heavy iron square tubing to give the trainer stability. However, the heavy tubing also makes for considerable weight ... we estimate the platform to weigh about 500lb (~226kg). Below you can see the main section (right) and the forward section (left) of the L-1011 trainer platform:
 |
| L-1011 Trainer Platform - Pre-Installation |
The trainer comes with many extra pieces and details, such as the pilot's and first officer's side panels and the rear circuit breaker panel.
 |
| L-1011 Trainer Pilot's Side Panel with Nose Steering - Pre-Installation |
 |
| Main Circuit Braker Panel - L-1011 Rear Wall - Pre-Installation |
Great news! Will you keep the analog autopilot glareshield panel or will you update it to the digital one like many -500 had?
ReplyDeleteI would love to have the digital autopilot system ... but I can't seem to find it anywhere. If you have any leads ... please let me know! Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDelete