Man Flies$500M Fake Jet Simulator, Survives Explosive Windshear Drama
KEY POINTS
- •Taylor Rains flew an Airbus A350 simulator at Turkish Airlines' Istanbul training center with Captain Fatih Altunok.
- •The simulator mimics rare but dangerous scenarios like windshear, turbulence, and low-visibility landings for pilot safety.
- •Turkish Airlines operates about 30 simulators with 650 instructors, training over 7,500 pilots for 160,000 hours annually.
Taylor Rains got semi-lived in the Istanbul Turkish Airlines Airbus A350 simulator, a $500 million couch with hydraulic legs that can flip jets upside down—because who hasn't dreamed of inverting a $300M plane safely? With Captain Fatih Altunok, Turkish Airlines' flight training SVP (who's flown Boeing AND Airbus, essentially a cockpit polyglot), Taylor faced heart-racing fake windshear alerts that scream 'GO AROUND!' louder than your last Zoom call glitch. The center boasts 30 simulators, 650 instructors, and trained 7,500 pilots in 2025 alone—for a whopping 160,000 hours, or 18 years of pretend flying without any actual crash bonuses. Visuals weren’t photorealistic because losing frame rate is less terrifying than losing altitude, apparently.
Share the Story
Spent hours pretending to dodge crashes in a $500M jet box because actual turbulence is apparently too mainstream for pilot training.
Apparently, pilots get paid to experience virtual near-death experiences while the rest of us hold our lukewarm coffee mid-flight.
Istanbul’s A350 simulator can fake flipping a $300M plane upside down but still can’t make those scenic cloud screens look less 2005 PowerPoint.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 2/21/2026 | Author: Taylor Rains
More Articles in Technology
Mom's VIP Car Rides: The Last Safe Space Before Tween Goes Dark Mode
Trump Promises to UFO-Spy Everyone While Picking Favorite Conspiracies
New Jersey City Nixes Data Center, Insists Future AI Drinks From Local Tap Instead
Gen Z Quits Smartphones to Make 2005’s iPod Classic Great Again
Party Projector Promises Epic Karaoke, Also Doubles as Mobile Nightclub
Phil Spencer Retires, Leaves Xbox Kids in AI Hands with No Help Button
Dilbert Creator’s AI Ghost Sparks Family Feud Over Digital Afterlife Rights
