Since we were on the subject of images, I thought I'd show you what goes into
a flight simulator visual system.
This is a mirror, it is in it's deflated condition. It is a large sheet of Mylar (same
as a potato chip bag, sorta) It's streched over a plenum (the round white thing) and then
is drawn back into a sphere by applying a vaccume to the back side. Sorta like a backwards bubble.
Once it is pulled tight you cannot see any wrinkles, it looks like a perfectly round mirror.
It is then placed on this platform, right in front of the cockpit. The cockpit is below that big Gray Bubble.
We project an image using 3 or 5 projectors (depending on the application) onto the gray bubble from the backside,
or the top back of the simulator. The projectors are like the red, green and blue 3 lens projection televisions. We
Just have more than one channel.
The pilot now looks into the mirror that is right in front of him, but he sees the reflected image that is on the gray
bubble above him.
After the visual system is installed. We cover the entire thing with fiberglass "blackout" panels, so that light can't get
in and so it looks pretty.
Here's what they look like when finished.
This is a really really old one:
http://www.olympic-airways.gr/images/avisimulator300uk.gif