The Fourth of August 1981, marked a new era for Boeing as their first all-new product(s) since the Boeing 747 rolled out in 1969, the Boeing 757, and her sister ship the 767 rolled out into a world of commercial aviation much different from that of the 747, which preceded them. By then, Lockheed had finally fallen to Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas as their L-1011 was nearing product completion. Boeing's airliner, the 747 had taken on stride, and shown that Boeing was the best, outselling the DC-10 and L-1011. In 1981, the Boeing 727 fleet, though venerable was aging, with the end of their production run in sight. The 707 was aging, and its role had changed to nearly complete domestic service as the big wide-bodies had taken on the horizons of jet travel.
To take advantage of new technologies such as lighter materials, new computer systems and more powerful engines, Boeing developed a new narrow-body, the 757-200, a twinjet whose purpose to replace 707s and 727s, carried its predecessors' fuselage, with a all-new nose and cockpit. Her sister ship, the 767-200, was a design unlike any other. For the first time, a twinjet airliner was able to have a widebody fuselage and enough power to meet standards (it was however, preceded by the slightly smaller Airbus A300). However, unlike the 747, DC-10 and L-1011, the 767-200 was a unique size, its fuselage narrower than the 'big three' yet wide enough have dual isles, in a 2-3-2 fashion as opposed to a 3-4-3 or a 2-5-2 in the DC-10. With its new, smaller size it could operate into smaller airports, and created a niche of its own, for comfortable wide-body service for medium to long-range routes both domestic and international.
The first models were the 757-200 and 767-200 whose length (767) is greater by about 4 feet. Then came the 767-300, which made the product much more popular, increasing by 21 feet; her sister the 757-300 was a less popular model, being only 2 feet shorter than the 767-300 making it the longest narrow-body twinjet in the world. Then, in 1997 the Boeing 767-400ER was introduced, with a fuselage 21 feet longer at 201 feet long, it was designed for Continental and Delta Air Lines. The -400ER features larger windows, longer wings with 'raked wingtips' and larger main gear, giving it a nose-down appearance while taxiing.
The popular 767-300 was eventually made into a freighter, the 767-300F. That model was nearly identical to the passenger variant as a plane, but featured a large cargo door, and no side windows. Two other variants were made of the Boeing 767, and were based on the 767-200 model. These were the Boeing E-767, made special for the Japanese Air Self Defense as an EWACS platform; The second being the KC-767, an aerial tanker.
Boeing, as a replacement for the KC-135, designed the KC-767 (the -135 which was based on the Boeing 707). The KC-767 was in a tense competition for many years with the Northrop Grumman/EADS KC-30 (based on the Airbus A330) for the USAF Tanker-X contract.
As the base 767, the 767-300F, E-767 and KC-767 are very well carried out models, with great textures, shaping identical to that of the real aircraft, and great sounds, performance, cockpit realism and an overall complete package. Since you have had to own the 767-300 Base Pack to have this product, the flying dynamics are identical, with the military variants taking off slightly quicker due to their size (based on 767-200).
Now if you've flown the 767-300 before owning this, the cockpit is 100% the same, and if you've transitioned from the 757, the differences are near zero. The cockpit is wider than the 757 and that's about it; a very easy transition, and why airlines operate the 757 and 767 with the same type rating. There is a freight deck modeled for the 767-300F, but no cabin in the military variants. There are extra 2-D panels in the military variants for the operation of the tanker booms and the radome.
Being these models are based off passenger variants, the freighter of the -300ER and the military ones off the -200, their exterior models are nearly identical; for the freighter, there is a cargo door and no windows. The KC-767 offers a centerline boom that extends for refueling other aircraft (although this feature isn't currently possible...yet) and it has two refueling pods on the wingtips that are on an inertial reel. Please note that there winglets available on the KC-767, but you lose two refueling lines. The E-767 has an obvious difference, the large radome on the top of the fuselage. This radome unit is identical to that of the E-3 (a 707 AWACS plane) but made for Japan's Air Defense for communality between tankers and other planes.
The sounds on these 767 expansions are amazing, and sound exactly as they should, and are Captain Sim's signature high-quality sounds that add to the realism.
This is a nice product, different, and specialized variants of the Boeing 767, for pilots who want to fly for freight carrying, or imagine they're in the military. This is an overall great package, expansion for the Captain Sim 767-300 and is great plane.
High-quality textures, ease of flying, zero change between ops from the base 767-300, great customer support
E-767 only used by Japanese Air Self Defense, aerial refueling isn't yet possible
Peter Carlson
petersnoopy@sbcglobal.net
Learn More Here:
KC-767 Tanker Expansion
767 Freighter Expansion
E-767 AWACS Expansion
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