Last night I was working on a new design for a center-mounted (between the legs) fighter cockpit control stick. Actually, I was machining a piece of the system.The lathe I was using is one that I inherited from my father, who inherited it from his father. The data plate says it was built in New York, NY 1906. This makes it ninety-eight years old.Now, most of the followers of this forum are still young and don

COOL!!!

I have an AMD K6-2 500Mhz and it runs flight sims with full textures, flight dynamics and all polygons turned...OFF. By today

How about the P-II 350Mhz I

John,I'll be 50 somewhere this year, so with a bit of luck I'm sort of halfway.Wish I had a lathe myself, and I'm seriously jealous of the machine you have. So much history! What else was made with this lathe? How many hours your grandfather and your father have spent behind the machine? What were they thinking? Was sort of future did they have in mind? These things make us realise that we're only a small link in the chain of history.My grandfather was a furniture maker and I wish I had some of his tools. At least we still have a table in the family made by him.Kind regards,Stephan Haaswww.lemont.nl/b767flightdeckhttp://www.pic767flyingclub.com/images/sas544.jpg

Stephan,I agree with your assessment of the history in that lathe. I was lucky enough to acquire several other old tools from my father. Many of them were actually built by my father or grandfather. Both of them were unbelievable with their hands and could build anything. I think I am honoring them by using their tools to build useful things. Like simulators! LOLActually, my father introduced me to the world of flight simulators. When I was about six or seven, he showed me a Link Simulator that was used by the Civil Air Patrol to train pilots. I thought it was cool until he closed the top on me and it got dark inside. I started to cry. LOL I can still remember the lights on the instruments. That simulator and a real flight in an airplane shortly afterward started me on the path that would eventually lead me to attending college and USAF pilot training. All because of the first flight simulator. John

John,One of the nice things of being older is that there are so many good things to remember. Yep, I know, it's a lousy statement, but we'll have to make the best out of our life.Kind regards,Stephan Haaswww.lemont.nl/b767flightdeckhttp://www.pic767flyingclub.com/images/sas544.jpg

When the space shuttle made its first flight, in 1981, "The Times" asked a retired reporter to return to work just to cover the landing. They asked him to do so because he had covered Langleys unsuccesfull 1903 flight over the Potomac (A few days before the Wright bro's - the launching mechanism jammed and the machine just fell off the end of the flight deck into the river :-( ) as well as some of the later succesfull flights.How's about that for a cycle - from the first powered flights in America to reusable spacecraft in the length of a single career.Richard