Titles
Through FlyPT Mover, third-party software, which reads each simulator's own data layer. Which titles work depends on FlyPT Mover and each simulator, not on ARK.
6DOF flight simulator Sustained attitude and
airframe texture, on
the same platform.
Two-axis flight seats pivot in pitch and roll and stop there — no translation, no yaw. As the base of a full-motion 6DOF flight simulator, the Portal Development Kit (PDK), a development kit for developers, integrators and research partners, gives you all six, which matters because flying is mostly slow attitude with fast texture written on top of it.
Development Kit: early-access hardware, software in active development.
What each axis gives you ›Sustained flight, compact envelope ›What this is not ›
Six axes, not two
What is a 6DOF flight simulator?
A 6DOF flight simulator moves the cockpit on all six axes: surge, sway, heave, pitch, roll and yaw, where a tilting seat gives you two or three. The translations are most of what a seat leaves out: thrust pushes you back, sideslip loads you sideways, turbulence arrives from below. The Portal Development Kit (PDK) is that motion base, for developers and integrators to build into a full-motion 6DOF flight simulator. Six direct-drive motors move it, with no gearbox, belt or reduction stage in the load path. Under 1 ms and 3 g on all six axes, fully loaded (250 kg). 3 g is the firmware limit on the development kit; the hardware envelope is larger.
Its geometry is a 6DOF Stewart platform. How two, three and six axes compare: 2DOF vs 3DOF vs 6DOF.
What each axis gives you
Six axes, in flight terms.
A pivot seat gives you two of these. The remaining four are where most of the information about the aircraft's state lives.
| Axis | Kind | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Surge | Translation | Takeoff acceleration you lean back into, braking after touchdown, thrust changes felt before the gauges move. |
| Sway | Translation | Crosswind drift and sideslip — the lateral push that says the approach is less stabilized than the instruments suggest. |
| Heave | Translation | Turbulence, thermals, ground effect cushioning into the flare, runway seams, and the shock of a firm arrival. |
| Pitch | Rotation | Rotation, climb and descent attitude, the flare, and stall buffet as high-frequency texture over a sustained attitude. |
| Roll | Rotation | Coordinated turns with direct-drive smoothness, from rate-one to aerobatic onset. |
| Yaw | Rotation | Rudder work, asymmetric thrust and crosswind alignment. |
Sustained flight, compact envelope
No platform reproduces sustained acceleration. Not even a full-flight simulator.
The technique is onset cueing with tilt coordination: move sharply to give the onset, then tilt slowly so gravity carries the sustain. Done below the threshold of notice, the handover is invisible.
Your cockpit on it
The PDK is the motion base: up to 250 kg payload on 1.00 × 1.00 m for the PDK platform, 1.57 m in diameter with the extension feet. Builders mount and integrate their own structure, yokes and avionics.
Rotary-wing
The envelope covers hover work: small sustained attitude offsets, the transition through translational lift, and cyclic and collective texture as vibration over the top of it.
Bigger platforms still have to wash their travel out, and the FAA lets a certified helicopter flight training device's motion lag up to 150 ms behind the pilot's input. Measured: the PDK goes from input to motion in under 1 ms, counted from the input reaching the platform, with both measurement points on the latency page. What a rider feels is not something ARK can guarantee.
The cueing argument in full is on the motion cueing page, including why bigger rigs drag you back.
What this is not
Not a certified
flight training device.
The PDK is supplied as a development kit for research and engineering. It is not a certified Flight Training Device or Full Flight Simulator under FAA 14 CFR Part 60, EASA CS-FSTD(A) or the equivalent authority in your jurisdiction, and we make no claim that it is. A program that needs a type-rated Level B, C or D device needs a qualified simulator. The PDK is for development and evaluation work around and beneath that: research and engineering.
Keep reading
Aerospace and defense
The same architecture for program work, and the same certification statement stated at program scale.
Motion cueing
Onset, tilt and washout — the technique this page depends on.
The Ecosystem
The PDK, development-kit price $4,899.99, is the raw platform and the usual starting point for a cockpit build. The development-kit price for your country, and what it includes, is on the order page.