My just-turned-9 year old is utterly obsessed with aviation. Like, completely and utterly obsessed.
His aircraft knowledge really is incredibly and he can land anything better than I can (by miles) on Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Luckily for him, Santa clearly got wind of this and for Christmas brought him a flight sim experience at Deck747 at Barton Aerodrome.
Deck 747 is the UK’s first flight simulator built into the cockpit on a real Boeing 747. They’ve taken the top deck front part of an actual retired BA 747 and turned it into a flight sim, complete with a business class cabin for you to just hang out in before and after casually flying the thing in the sim!
So, I took my son along in December 2023 and here’s how it went.
Deck747 Flight Sim Review in a Nutshell
| Place | Deck747, Barton Aerodrome |
| Age Range | 8+ |
| Price | £74.95 upwards |
| How my Son Rated It | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| How I Rated It | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
This is INCREDIBLE. Honestly, it was so good. Here’s a little Tiktok preview:
@staceyhikes One of the best days out with kids in Manchester. The Deck 747 is a flight similator built into an actual 747. Suitable for kids from age 7 too. Took my 8 year old aviation enthusiast for a flight yesterday and he’s still absolutely buzzing about it today. #avgeek #manchester #flightsimulator ♬ Fly Away – Tones And I
Honestly, it was so much fun for him and the instructor, Jay, was just brilliant with him.
He was able to choose 3 airports to take off from, 3 to land at and even fly under the Golden Gate Bridge.
This is an original 747 cockpit so it’s hyper realistic an experience for the kids and the staff go out of the way to answer questions.
It’s recommended for ages 8+ and is as popular with adults as kids, it seems!
Within the hangar there’s somewhere to buy coffee as well as an aviation memorabilia shop and a licensed bar too.
Barton Aerodrome itself, where Deck747 is based, has a control tower you can visit, places to watch aircraft landing and taking off and a restaurant on site as well. So there’s plenty to do before and after your sim experience
He loved it so much we ended up booking his birthday party there..
True story. At the end of his flight sim experience at Deck747 a member of the team there mentioned parties. So I enquired a few days later.
In the end, we had his 9th birthday party there at the end of February 2024.
Including the birthday boy and our middle son plus 11 friends, there were 13 children there. We booked out the sim essentially for 2.5 hours and they provided two instructors during this time plus two members of staff helping to keep the kids entertained while they weren’t on the sim.
Even the adults wanted a go with some of the leftover time.
They gave us access to a kitchen so we were able to put food on the for the kids and were generally just incredibly accommodating.
The feedback from our son’s friends and their parents was amazing. It was such a unique birthday party and he’ll remember it forever.
Would I recommend Deck747?
Absolutely yes. I can be expensive for a regular day out, but for a special occasion (particularly for the flight and aviation obsessed children) this is unlike anything else.
