There are moments that just make you stop and appreciate flight simulator.
This evening I fired up Prepar3D, loaded up the Project Airbus A380 wearing Singapore colors and headed across the pond for EGLL. Just something about the colors, the reflection on the fuselage, and the clouds just made this moment special. And yes, the Project Airbus A380 does work in Prepar3D.
Project Airbus shook the virtual skies with their A320 family of models for flight simulator. They shook the skies a bit more (luckily no birds fell from the sky) when they released the flying whale, the A380. Each release represented a new standard of detail and new drool on the keyboard.
< check out the new project tease thread here >
With the little guy (A318) and the whale (A380) awaiting download, the middle is left wide open. But the Project Airbus team is looking to fill the spot with a new A330 model that is rumored to be in the works. Head over to their forums and check out some of the screenshots they are teasing us virtual pilots with.
We really ooohhh’d and aaawww’d when Project Airbus released the A320 v2 for FS2004. Then we ooohhh’d and aaawww’d a bunch more when they released the A321 with new features not found on their legendary A320. At this point, the A320 was antiquated and there really wasn’t much reason to continue ooohhh’ing and aaawww’ing about it.
Ooohhh, aawwww: The A320 v2.1
Well, we can now ooohhh and aaawww again when we fly the Project Airbus A320 v2.1. The latest update combines the legendary A320 with the awesome new features of the A321, including:
The official release and documentation is in this Project Airbus forum post. Downloads are available at the PA download section or via Avsim. Note, you must download the base pack AND a livery pack for it to work.
Check out those detailed engines!
Once downloaded, prepare yourself for some serious ooohhhh’ing and aaawwww’ing. I am in the process of putting this update through its paces, so more will come later.
A note on FSX compatibility. This model was built for FS2004 and no FSX model exists. While you can load it into FSX yourself, your experience may vary and there will be limited support.
Cheers! Happy Airbus’ing!
Update 01dec12 – updated links to the new Project Airbus site at http://www.pafs.wf
The MS Flight Simulator Directory I created to help virtual pilots find some of the more popular aircraft for FS9/FSX was such a hit, I decided to compile one for X-Plane. (You can my gibberish below and go right to the directory here if you must.)
X-Plane, like FS9/FSX, represents a blank canvas for virtual pilots to create their own reality (hence: A Reality of My Own). Unfortunately, out of the box, X-Plane doesn’t offer much in the way of scenic eye candy while on approach to the runways.
Even with a host of included aircraft, X-Plane doesn’t have an all inclusive virtual hangar. With talented designers out there that recreate their favorite aircraft in great detail, there is always something new to load, fly, and explore.
< Click here to visit the X-Plane Directory >
So, head on over and take a look at some of my favorites. If you have any suggestions for the content of the page, please leave a comment or send me a tweet (@MyFlightSim).
Cheers! Happy Flying!
AROMO!
There is a new Airbus A340-600 model out for X-Plane, brought to us by the team at The X-Plane Paintshop. This model is based off of the FSX A340 model from Thomas Ruth, with a host of others contributing to its greatness.
XPP A340-600 over Santa Barbara
I am still in the process of putting “the long one” through its paces, so I will limit this post first impressions. The exterior model, like the FSX counterpart, is nicely detailed and highly accurate. The 2D panel is the full width (as opposed to the pilot of first officer view) and provides easy access to the autopilot and contains the “glass” gauges typical of an Airbus.
The only drawback are the twitchy flight dynamics. I have not flown a real A340 and have only spent about 20 minutes flying this model, but I found that is noses up and down easily. This may have been due to weather, but I found it very difficult to trim the aircraft for straight and level flight. More testing here to come!
You may download the aircraft and livery pack from the X-Plane Paintshop download page. Registration is required, but its super simple and free (so don’t complain!).
Cheers!
I have heard the Airbus A321 referred to as the “flying pencil.” A friend of mine even refers to it as the “flying penis.” However, you refer to it, it is now available for Flight Simulator, both FS9 and FSX.
The Project Airbus A321 is the fourth variation of the A32X family of aircraft manufactured in Europe. The A321 joins the A318, A319, and A320 for your flying enjoyment and has the same incredible visual model Project Airbus is known for delivering.
Project Airbus A321-231 leaving LAX in FS9
It is available on Avsim (links here) and via the Project Airbus downloads section of the website. A word of caution however, packages are split into base packages and repaints. You must download at least one livery with the base package.
Lufthansa Retro A321 over Germany
Now for the more complicated part, the livery instructions require precise file placement and the execution of a .bat file. I tried three liveries and couldn’t get any of them to work. My advice, extract the texture files, add the configuration code to the aircraft.cfg, and copy the texture files included in the base package to the texture folder. Anyway, good luck!
On approach to SEA-TAC in FSX
This is one sweet aircraft that works well in FSX and FS9.
01dec12 – updated links to the new Project Airbus website
Flying Project Airbus’s A380 in Microsoft Flight Simulator is a lot fun. However, I have an iMac and to get the full power of the processor, I have to boot into Windows. Not very convenient for multi-tasking on long flights. Which is another reason why I started taking another look at X-Plane. X-Plane lets me run in my native Mac OS X environment without reboots and I can run it with some pretty high graphics settings (unlike MSFS in the virtual environment using Fusion).
Being that the recent release of the Project Airbus A380 is still at the top of my mind, I thought I would add an A380 to my X-Plane hangar (which is a little barren at the moment). After searching the web, I found one. While originally developed for X-Plane 8.40, comments on the download seemed favorable and recent. <available here> So I downloaded it and have to say that it is quite nice. A Project Airbus A380 it ain’t, but for X-Plane, it is good enough to enjoy, especially since it has a custom panel and cockpit views.
Flying this baby up the Columbia River Gorge after leaving Portland (KPDX), was an experience like no other. X-Planes rendering settings were cranked, I was flying low and relatively slow (for an A380) and that water looked oh so refreshing. The vacation of a lifetime!
Cheers!
I am a Business Analyst. Numbers fascinate me! Patterns fascinate me!
When I was taking a look at the Avsim File Library this evening, I decided to take a look at “Yesterday’s Hot Files,” I was not surprised to see the Project Airbus A380 dominating the downloads.
Clear Winner!
What did surprise me was the popularity of the different paints. For some reason I was expecting Emirates to be on top. I was wrong, Air France was tops by over 300 downloads (total 1351). Number two was Singapore at 1,023. Next was the House Colors at under 968. Both Emirates liveries ranked last… boy was I wrong.
Where does your favorite A380 livery rank? (click for larger image)
Note that the third and sixth ranking download is not a Project Airbus A380, but the wonderful Enigma Simulations BAe ATP packs. If you haven’t flown either of these aircraft, download them and fly them ASAP!
Short and sweet, the Airbus A380 for Microsoft Flight Simulator is out! Check out this announcement for download! Looks like it is also on avsim as well.
The Biggest Project Airbus To Date!
More later… I am so going to take the day off from work for this one! Woohoo! Mark this day in history!
If you are both an Airbus fan and a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator, you are probably already familiar with Project Airbus. You are also probably already aware that they have been working on the best freeware A380 models for flight simulator for many, many years.
Well, I just popped over to the PA site and am wondering how near the A380 release is. In their Preview & Announcements forum, there are some very jaw dropping screenshots of the A380 wearing Air France, Qantas, and Emirates clothing. Head over and take a look. But wait…
With previews appearing in their forum and a tweet on Twitter that says “cabin crew, seats for landing“, one can’t help but think that a release is near. Of course, the actual release date is only for the wonderful developers of Project Airbus, but it is time for you and me to check their site daily… release must be near!
Cheers!
Update: The release was very, very near. The Airbus A380 is now released, you can grab it at Avsim. You can also read the A Reality Of My Own announcement here.
