Operations and Other Notes:

Escorting a Southwest Airlines plane - definitely not real life!

Aircraft Operation:

The prototype aircraft operates close to the expected performance based on available data.  The performance due to the available engines is not great.  The two hypothetical versions do have somewhat upgraded engines.

1)  Runway Lengths - This airplane takes much runway length to take off and land.  Appropriate runways 

     are in places like: 

    a) Westover, Dyess, Barksdale and Kirkland AFBs (B-52 capable bases)

    b) DFW or JFK international airports

    c) Space Shuttle Landing facility

    Your local airport with a 3,000 foot runway won't work.

2)  Fuel Consumption - Much better over 30,000 feet.  Get up quick and stay there for max range.

3)  Speed Brakes - Once this aircraft gets up to speed it is hard to slow down.  The speed brakes are essential.

4)  Elevator Trim - The aircraft does have some tendency to pitch up.   Trim is essential for long duration 

     manual flight.

5)  Autopilot - This plane has an autopilot.  It is modern and much more sophisticated than what was really installed.

6)  GPS - Included in aircraft.  Obviously that wasn't around for the original aircraft.

7)  Radar - The real aircraft had a primitive AN/APG- 5 radar.  Any FS2004 radar is probably far better.

 

Acknowledgements:

1)  The aircraft were built using Abacus FSDS v3.5.1

2)  The gauges provided should all be default FS2004 gauges 

3)  The low-res pilot was provided by Dave Eckert and textured by myself

4)  Textures were created using Paint Shop Pro

5)  DXTBmp was used to update the alpha layers