Man spends five years building a Boeing 737 cockpit in his home and gives an incredible tour
Published on Jan 08, 2026 at 9:11 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Jan 09, 2026 at 12:18 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
This guy spent years building his own DIY Boeing 737 flight simulator, and it’s genuinely unbelievable.
What started as a simple ‘lockdown’ project during the pandemic ended up becoming something much bigger and sophisticated than that.
Some Ryanair and British Airways pilots – people who fly Boeing 737 jets and use Boeing 737 flight simulators – saw this in person and couldn’t believe their eyes.
But wait until you hear how much it cost him.
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This Boeing 737 flight simulator is nearly as good as the real thing
Alberto Paduanelli, a medical device auditor from the UK, began working on his flight simulator project in his garage back in 2020, during the pandemic.
Some of us were making bread or tending a garden – he was building a simulator.
He started his own garage, and it took him around four years and a lot of patience.
And money.
But it was clearly money well spent.
Paduanelli documented his build on his YouTube channel – B738DIY, as in Boeing 737-800, DIY – and the attention to detail is spectacular.
The cockpit of the Boeing 737-800 has been recreated with painstaking attention to detail, and it includes every single gauge, lever, and button you’d find in a real simulator and a real 737 aircraft.
His project hit the radar of real-life Ryanair and British Airways pilots, and they claim it’s just as good as the real thing.
It wasn’t cheap
The DIY Boeing 737 flight simulator looks tremendous, but it wasn’t cheap to build.
By his own admission, he spent at least $165,000 on this project.
To make back some of the cash he spent, Paduanelli launched a simulation program, called Alpa Simulation, which charges customers for the experience.
The cheapest package starts at around $100 for 60 or 90-minute sessions.
Or you can buy six-hour packages, which cost a bit more than that.
Up to $200 and $300.
Next, we’d love to see him build a Concorde simulator.
