Collin asked...

well, there are two questions about the 707 cockpit

1: The artificial horizon - what's the real one like? I've seen a lot of photos with ones like the image located here - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Boeing_707-123_B_%281959%29_C... (flat ones like the 727), but the one in the game is a ball AH. Is that what is looks like in some models only?

2:As well, what type (if any) did the real 707 have? Did it have a single, dual, etc.

3:If anyone knows what type did the 727 have?

The early 707's had the ball type horizon they also had dual flight directors of the type in the CS model. Later on some airlines and new owners put in the up-dated versions that you see in the photos. The flight directors were poor compared to the "yellow bird" type.

Every airline in the 60's ordered custom cockpits. TWA had all the overhead panel switches reversed from the standard Boeing. TWA considered the overhead panel a vertical panel so the switches were flipped up for on. Boeing planned the overhead as horizontal thus forward on the switch for on. As the Finn said, some planes had the fire pulls on the glare shield, some on the overhead.

Dual flight directors refers to two independent flight director computers. One for the Captain and one for the F/O. Landing minimums were based on the type of guidance being used to conduct the approach. Hand flown, raw data (no flight director) had the highest minimums. If you used dual flight directors you could land with lower visibility. You could use just the autopilot, or autopilot and F/D to get the lowest minimums. If the Captain's F/D was inop, you could use autopilot and one flight director with dual display by the Captain switching his display to the F/O's flight director.

The 727's we had at TWA had FD-108's by Collins. Other airlines had FD-109's and some had a Sperry system. The difference in birthdays of the 707 and the 727 made a big difference in the level of tech.

All the fancy computer navigation stuff came later. Most G/A planes had much more advanced instruments since up-grade was a lot cheaper if you only had one or two planes and you were certified part 91 or 135. The airlines were certified part 121 and almost all the instrumentation was ARINC compliant.

Lou