Inside the UK’s Most Authentic Boeing 747-400 Flight Simulator
A Genuine British Airways Cockpit, Fully Operational
You fly the real thing. The flight deck at 744 Experience is the original cockpit of British Airways Boeing 747-436 G-CIVM, complete with the instruments and avionics her crews used in service. Every control in front of you is the one that was there on the day she last flew. An experienced instructor sits beside you throughout, so no flying experience is needed.
G-CIVM flew for British Airways for more than twenty years. She now lives on as a fixed base 747-400 simulator and procedures trainer, fully complete with her original instruments and avionics, with the engineering overseen throughout by professional simulator engineers.
About the Aircraft
| Aircraft | Boeing 747-436, registration G-CIVM |
| First flight | 27th May 1997 |
| Delivered to British Airways | 5th June 1997 |
| Last commercial flight | Accra to London Heathrow, 15 March 2020 |
| Total hours flown | 96,849 |
What It's Like to Fly the Genuine Controls of a Boeing 747-400
Take off and fly to any of hundreds of airports around the world, using the original controls and instruments that British Airways crews used across her twenty years in service. Choose your route, your weather and your time of day.
Every original button and switch on the flight deck is operational. That means far more than a departure and a landing. You can fly normal operations exactly as they were flown in service, or take on abnormal ones: system failures, emergency scenarios and the procedures a 747 crew trained for and hoped never to need.
Outside the windows, a 220 degree wrap-around visual display runs 4K imagery, with enhanced surround sound throughout. Sessions are fully instructed from start to finish.
For First-Time Flyers and Working Pilots
Because G-CIVM operates as a procedures trainer as well as a simulator, the session bends to whoever is in the seat. If you have never touched an aircraft control, your instructor flies alongside you and you leave having taken off and landed a 747. If you fly for a living, or you flew this aircraft in service, the flight deck responds exactly as it did then, and there is nothing stopping you working through a full abnormal checklist.
It is the same cockpit either way. Only the ambition changes.
G-CIVM was one of 31 British Airways 747s retired in 2020. Read how her flight deck was saved and brought back to life.
Book Your Flight Simulator Experience
Short Haul flights start from £279 for 90 minutes, or £379 for 150 minutes. Long Haul sessions are available on request. Up to three non-flying guests are included free with every booking.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Yes. It is the original flight deck of British Airways Boeing 747-436 G-CIVM, which flew in service for over twenty years. The instruments and avionics are hers, not reproductions.
-
No. G-CIVM is a fixed base simulator and procedures trainer, which means the flight deck does not move. What it offers instead is complete authenticity: every original switch and instrument works exactly as it did in service, which a full motion cockpit built from replica parts cannot match.
-
No. An experienced pilot sits beside you and instructs you throughout, and most guests arrive having never touched an aircraft control. You will take off, fly a route of your choosing and land.
-
You can fly to hundreds of airports worldwide, and you choose the route, the weather and the time of day. Come with an idea of where you would like to fly if you have one, though it is not essential.
-
Yes. Because G-CIVM operates as a procedures trainer, you can fly normal and abnormal operations, work through system failures and run full emergency scenarios, exactly as a 747 crew would have done.
-
Short Haul sessions run for either 90 minutes or 150 minutes. Longer sessions are available on request as part of a Long Haul booking.