Cockpit shell Construction

[the_great01]

In the brainstorming phase of building my B767 cockpit. I am trying to cultivate how to approach building the shell. I have seen some pictures but I have not seen anyone demonstrate step by step. I am looking for an affordable and simple option.
Any Ideas?

[jnr641802]

I expect this to be of little help to you but this is how I undertook the shell build .If you are after the ultimate 100% exact copy of the aircraft then this may not be for you...

Due to extreme space constraints,9'x9' room,I had to build a slightly reduced 737 size shell for my generic 737/747 cockpit.Having never built a cockpit before I decided to start by making something small and simple to see if it was all even viable so I built the window surrounds first (most people start with the mip).I put them on a table and just looked through them and imagined where I would go from there.I then built a simple wooden 2"x 2" framed stand for the window surrounds to be attached to having made sure the width/height would be enough for my mip/monitors.I then commenced building back from that point by attaching 2 pieces of 2"x 2" thick wood approx 7' long (small cockpit!) for the shell side wall bases with either side fanning out to the approximate angle of the fuselage sides I wanted.For the shell ribs I only used straight pieces of wood for simplicity(no curved ribs) joined by hammered/bent angled brackets,because when you put the skin on (approximately 3mm thick hardboard sheets in my case) it's easy to add a few little bits of wood strategically in various places to achieve a slightly curved appearance inside and out when the skin is screwed over the shell frame.This is definitely no prize winning cockpit but it does the job acceptably (to me....) realistically and the shell cost no more than £50-£60 to make(excluding windscreens).I have some 2 year old photos on this site showing some early shots of the build if it's of any use(unlikely !!.)

regards Jim

[Burkhard]

Hi Jim,

I have (found on the Internet), the upper and lower dimensions of the window dimensions are shown gross with wooden slats in the room. Then I built up the various vertices properly. I built each side panel separately and then bonded together. So you can separate the cockpit again and transport. I have documented the structure with lots of pictures on my page. I hope it helps a bit.

Burkhard
www.Homecockpit-737NG.blogspot.com

[jnr641802]

Those are really excellent construction photos on your web site Burkhard.If I had seen those photos when I originally built my shell I would have copied your simple modular design to the letter,the original poster should find that very useful indeed after tweaking to 767 dimensions.

regards Jim