Inflight entertainment

By Lauren Bartlett, May 16, 2007 @ 11 pm

Pacific Simulators builds virtual aircrafts for kicks

There’s nothing more desirable than something you can’t afford. So Christchurch-based Pacific Simulators has found a whole new market for its aircraft simulators—entertainment.

Simulators generally cost about $20 million a pop but Pacific Simulators is selling its replica Boeing 737 cockpits for a mere million bucks. Managing director Mike Pero says his firm can make cheaper cockpits by using parts similar to the real thing, rather than actual aircraft components, with the application of “Kiwi ingenuity”.

Pero expects entertainment to make up about 95 percent of Pacific’s business. “The entertainment arm has grown faster than the professional training—we’ve had hundreds of enquiries to establish these from Turkey, London and Vancover to India and China,” says Pero, whose simulators are already operating in Australasia.

“It’s all about showing people what a unique experience flying is.”