[From GeekWire; a photo gallery is available from Seattle’s KING5]
Welcome aboard: A virtual takeoff and landing from the cockpit of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner
December 3, 2012 by Taylor Soper
Whether you’re an aviation geek or just always wanted to sit in the cockpit during a flight, Boeing’s new “DreamPass” digital experience for the 787 Dreamliner is simply freakin’ awesome.
There are two portions to this neat new feature from Boeing and one in particular that is badass. On the last leg of the Dream Tour, Boeing placed a camera in the cockpit on a flight from Portland to Seattle. While the video plays during takeoff and landing, users can virtually sit behind two captains, click and drag to look all around the cockpit and switch between both in-flight commentary from 787 chief pilot Randy Neville and the pilot commentary. It’s essentially a real-life Flight Simulator.
You can also do an exterior tour of everything from the fusalage, engines and wings. As you tour, there are loads of interesting information for each section of the plane where you can learn more about the Dreamliner.
The technology is flash-based, but the frame stitching and drag interface in all directions help to provide contextual info. Boeing used a 360-degree spherical vision camera from Point Grey for this project.
United, which recently debuted commercial service on the 787, has a nice interior tour of its newest planes here. There are currently eight airline operators flying the 787, including Japan Airlines, which began its all-new service on the 787 from San Diego to Tokyo on Sunday.