1) Depends on aircraft type as development costs need to be amortised across projected sales – typically US$ 15M – US$17M is a reasonable ball park figure.
2) The latest simulators do indeed use PC technology, although these industrial PCs are at the high end of the market.. The software is derived from aircraft data for flight, performance and systems simulation. Other areas, motions, atmosphere, IOS etc.. are produced by the manufacturers.
3) All scenarios are programmed in and yes, the latest do indeed run unders Windows OS. You do indeed need a high level of skills to maintain and modify, but operation is not as complex.
4) Thales, CAE and Flight Safety are the major commercial players
5) With the exception of pressure and some standby instruments ( e.g. Stdby compass) the instruments typically are as aircraft, although some attempts at replicating instruments has been attempted.
6) Operational costs are dependant upon location and number of sims operated. With very high upgrade costs (e.g.EGPWS) being required to keep sims at Level D standard the operating costs are around US$ 350 per hour.. As to reliability, the industry/manufacturers standard is 98.4%. Operators like ourselves achieve 99.9% with average utilisation of 20 hours per day.
7) Only if you are rich!!!!. (The Sultan of Brunei’s brother bought an A340 and an Apache)
8) Yes. The projectors must be capable of high brightness and calligraphic lights capablity.
9) & 10) – I don’t know
Cheers