Fly Away Simulation Flight Simulator Blog

Concorde Professional is out now! A state-of-the-art simulation of the world’s greatest airliner takes to the skies in Flight Simulator 2004

The era of supersonic transportation began with Concorde. Developed as a Franco-British joint venture to be the transport of tomorrow, its shape is still distinctive and Concorde set pulses racing whenever it flew. After 28 years of commercial operation Concorde has had to take early retirement but, thanks to the development team at PSS, this aviation icon will continue to dart across the skies of Flight Simulator 2004 at 23 miles-a-minute.

Extensive animation includes nose cone and visor, landing gear, split rudder, passenger and cargo doors, elevons, engine intake ramps and thrust reverser nozzles.

Concorde Professional comes with a comprehensive 2D panel as well as a fully detailed virtual cockpit that includes high resolution gauges with reflective glass, animated control yokes, rudder pedals, throttle levers and engineer’s panel. As you’d expect, there’s an accurate flight model with re-heat effect and an authentic version of Concorde’s unique INS (Inertial Navigation System)

To help you master all this, Concorde Professional includes a 160-page printed manual and a tutorial on the CD.

Full details at the Just Flight Website. Stayed tuned to Avsim for a complete review of this product.

BBQ-Videos in conjunction with AlphaSim is proud to present two small teaser videos of upcoming AlphaSim products. The first gives a glimps of the A-3B Skywarrior with a 5.5meg video.
Download the video at http://www.bbq-videos.com/alphasim/whaleteaser.zip
The 2nd video shows the unique Saab J-37 Viggen with an 8 meg video.
The download for this is at http://www.bbq-videos.com/alphasim/teaser2.zip

New Zealand’s Kane Milne announces that BBQ Videos released their latest video featuring the AlphaSim F-4 Phantom. This video shows all four models of this pack in various settings around the world and in different settings. The video is 3.45 minutes and is 26 meg to download at BBQ Videos.

Plane Design’s Ed Walters announced the release of their first product for MSFS - an Avro Lancastrian airliner. Developed from the legendary Lancaster bomber, the Lancastrian was the first aircraft to use London’s Heathrow airport, on Jan 1st 1946. This payware model depicts the Mk.3 version, and features a detailed external model built using original Avro drawings, a high fidelity, fully animated and clickable VC, an authentic Rolls-Royce Merlin engine soundpack, and also includes a 2d panel. A detailed description and screenshots are available on the Plane Design website.

Plane Design announces the release of their first product for MSFS - an Avro Lancastrian airliner. Developed from the legendary Lancaster bomber, the Lancastrian was the first aircraft to use London’s Heathrow airport, on Jan 1st 1946. This model depicts the Mk.3 version, and features a detailed external model built using original Avro drawings, a high fidelity, fully animated and clickable VC, an authentic Rolls-Royce Merlin engine soundpack, and also includes a 2d panel. A detailed description of the Lancastrian and screenshots are available on the Plane Design website.

The mighty F-4 Phantom has been recreated at AlphaSim in great detail, two models (F-4B and F-4J) are included along with four superb texture sets. The first of a trio of F-4 packages from AlphaSim, Set 1 depicts Phantoms of the US Navy. Later sets will cover the USAF/Luftwaffe and RAF/RN. Animations include - folding wings, tailhook, independent canopies, AB nozzles, drag chute and spoilers. Wingtip vortices and afterburner flame effects add to the realism. The flight dynamics are fine-tuned in accordance with the manufacturer’s data. A virtual cockpit and 2D panel with xml gauges and great ‘clickability’ complete this outstanding model set. You can see these screenshots in a larger format on their News page here. Or the complete set of thumbnails here.

Icarus Golden Age announces the release of their Macchi Castoldi 72. Features of the new release include a multi-resolution virtual cockpit with dynamic gauges and animation, moving rudder pedals, and reflective textures. For more information, visit Icarus Golden Age.

FeelThere today announced their new upcoming product product, the Cessna Caravan for FS2004. According to Victor Racz: “long flights with the autopilot and pushing the FMS buttons are over for now, and feelThere is landing VFR soon at the local airfield by it’s new airplane”, but plans to returm to heavy iron later on”. You can see several screenshost and get the details on this project here.

First it was the V22 Osprey, now AlphaSim has released a 4 minute preview video of their Westland Sea King simulation. This 20 Meg video downloads in under 2 minutes with a high speed connection. The video shows the different paint schemes of the aircraft as well as different terrain scenes. I was particularly impressed with the water effects when hovering low over the ocean.
“AlphaSim has lead the way in the presentation of new product. But then I like things that move rather than looking at pretty pictures.” Robert Whitwell - Sr Reviewer
You can find the video at www.bbq-videos.com/alphasim/seaking.zip

Now available free for download at the HoverControl website is a new Cobra Attack Helicopter model for FS2004. The model includes a highly detailed virtual cockpit in addtion to many animations of moving parts. Both pilot and gunner stations are modeled for the three different types of the helicopter that are represented. The file is approximately 23MB and may be downloaded here.

A few weeks ago we listed the announcement of Alpha Sim’s V-22 Osprey. Now you can “experience” what the sim is like rather than just looking at screenshots. Alpha Sim has released a video of their V-22 in action. It’s an 18 Meg download and takes about a minute to download or open with a high speed connection. This video features a high-detail all-grey, ‘weathered’ US Marines texture set, tilting rotors, custom sound set, 2D and Virtual Cockpit including detailed rear ‘hold’ area, opening crew entry, animated rear loading ramp etc. The aircraft flys from both airfields and from a carrier at sea. It’s all backed by some cool music and sets a new standard of looking before you buy. The video can be downloaded here