REVIEWS

Counting Down To Flight Simulator: A Century Of Flight

By Cap Mason, Flight Simulation Newsletter Editor, FlightSim.Com (20 February 2003)

Celebrate The Past, Explore The Present

To quote the Microsoft Flight Simulator Insider, "The overall goal of this version of Microsoft Flight Simulator is simple: To put virtual aviators in the cockpits of a wide variety of aircraft so they can experience the history and technological range of aviation first-hand, from the first rickety biplanes to modern jumbo jets, from short hops with sputtering engines and little more than compass to smooth, long-distance, high-altitude travel in the modern world's crowded skies with air traffic control and high-tech cockpits-and in a way that no book, magazine article, or movie can match."

Sums it up well, but doesn't do justice to what I perceived as a significant milestone in flight simulation when I spent the day with the Microsoft development team in the first in-depth workshop featuring Flight Simulator: A Century Of Flight (FS-ACOF).


Exterior view of Seattle's Museum of Flight

World's Best-Selling Entertainment Software Gets Even Better

One hundred years ago, Americans first took to the skies with powered flight. Twenty years ago, flightsimming was born with the creation of what is now Microsoft Flight Simulator. During those two decades, Flight Simulator became the best-selling entertainment title ever produced. Now, we are counting down to the blockbuster seminal event in the long history of flightsimming, the July release of FS-ACOF.

The Great Gallery at the Museum of Flight with a huge collection of historic aircraft on static display.
Mad Max Merlin and I got a sneak preview of FS-ACOF when Microsoft flew us, along with a small group of other aviation journalists, to Seattle to participate in their workshop. Held at the magnificent Museum of Flight, we spent the day with the Microsoft design team going through every aspect of FS-ACOF's impressive array of new features. We were also joined by John and Martha King from the world famous King Schools, the world's leading producer of aviation training videos and computer software.

This is the first of a series of articles we will publish that will give you an in-depth, no BS look at what Microsoft has in store for us in FS-ACOF.

Perfect Location

Seattle's Museum of Flight was the perfect location to preview all of FS-ACOF's new goodies. Max and I felt like kids in a candy shop. Located at Boeing Field, the Museum of Flight houses a breathtaking array of historical civilian and military aircraft and spacecraft. Half the fun was wandering through the Museum's exhibits and marveling at their unique collection. I will be doing a separate series of articles on the Museum's collection which include an actual Boeing 707 Air Force One, the world's only Blackbird M-21 Mothership with a supersonic ramjet-powered spy drone riding piggyback, the most gorgeous F4U Corsair I ever saw, plus some genuine rare finds such as the soon-to-be-displayed, world's first fighter, the 1914 Italian Caproni CA-20. This historic warbird was discovered completely intact, hidden away for decades in a remote monastery in Europe. Smithsonian Air And Space Museum eat your heart out!

Simming In The Wright Flyer

Detail of the Wright Flyer sim showing the cockpit cradle, footrest and flight controls. Powered by a Pentium 4 PC and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, this sim accurately recreates the challenge to pilot America's first powered aircraft.
Leave it to the Microsofties to come up with a new flightsim experience that is totally cool, and totally exhausting, too. Microsoft has teamed up with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) for the Countdown to Kitty Hawk. EAA is building an exact replica of the Wright Flyer that is as close to Orville and Wilbur's original aircraft as possible. It's being built with the exact same materials and is accurate right down to the stitches in the wing fabric. The re-built Flyer will recreate the Wright Brothers' epic achievement on December 17, 2003 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Max and I got a chance to fly the Flyer, in simulation of course, at the Museum of Flight. The heart of the EAA Wright Flyer simulator is FS2002. The cradle, shown here, is a replica of the Wright Flyer cockpit. It flies just as the Flyer did. We used a waist cradle to control wing warping to turn and a stick in the left hand to control pitch. The throttle was a simple two-position control: full on, or off.

Designed by the Microsoft team's aeronautical engineer, Mike Gilbert, the Wright Flyer is a handful, or should I say belly-full, to fly. As you can see from this shot of Mad Max, you lie face down in the cradle, plant your midsection in the wing-warping cradle, and wiggle the Flyer in the direction you want it to go. Hips left, she turns left, hips right, she turns right. Easier said than done. All I can say is, thank goodness for the invention of ailerons! It only took a little wiggle to start a turn and a massive and sustained yank in the opposite direction to recover before spinning into the ground. After applying full throttle, you had to pull back on the stick until she pitched up and became airborne, but then immediately recover before stalling. Flying The Flyer was exhausting, especially for us couch potatoes with bad backs!

Mad Max Merlin in The Wright Flyer Sim

"Pitch forward, now," Coached Mike Gilbert, Microsoft aeronautical engineer and designer of the EAA Wright Flyer sim. "Easy...That's good. Pitch left...more...I said PITCH LEFT!!!" (CRASH!)

"Who put that hangar there? There weren't any hangars at Kitty Hawk!" observes FlightSim.Com Combat Flight Sim Editor, Mad Max Merlin as he tries his hand at piloting the Wright Flyer sim. Piloting a powered kite while lying prone and turning with your hips instead of a yoke is a true test of any sim pilot's flying skills. Look for The Wright Flyer sim this summer at air shows sponsored by Microsoft and EAA.

Just to make it more interesting, the Flyer sim adds a few challenges that Orville and Wilbur never had such as buildings, hangars, and plane-eating trees. A little friendly competition quickly emerged among the Microsofties and the journalists to see who could fly the Flyer the farthest and longest without crashing. It soon became a clash of titans between Mad Max and Flying Magazine's Lane Wallace. Max nursed the Flyer into the air, through the trees, over buildings and was on his way to the beach at Kitty Hawk, when he clipped a building and bought the farm. When Lane Wallace took the controls, this Flying Magazine pilot showed Max how it's done. She cleared the obstacle course, went feet-wet over the beach, and was on her way to Bermuda when the Flyer ran out of fuel and ditched. Truly an amazing feat of airmanship in a very cool application of FS2002 technology.

The Microsoft-EAA Wright Flyer simulator will be touring the USA. Look for it at air shows this summer and try your hand at wing warping.

Here's What's New In FS-ACOF

All play and no work makes Cap a dull boy. So, I made the rounds of the FS-ACOF features and had my appetite whetted for what will be a blockbuster improvement over FS2002. According to Darryl Saunders, the Simulations Product Manager for Microsoft Game Studios, "We've made this product more accessible for more people. There are a lot of aviation enthusiasts who love airplanes and go to air shows. When they get their hands on this product, it's going to change their outlook on aviation. It's the one product that gives them a tactile experience about what a century of aviation is all about. They'll be able to immerse themselves completely in the experience of what it's like to fly not only modern airplanes, but also famous aircraft from the last hundred years."

One nice feature is that FS-ACOF will be compatible with previous versions of FS2000, FS2002, and CFS2. Aircraft and scenery created for Flight Simulator 2000 and later work with Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight, provided the developer followed the guidelines in the Flight Simulator SDK.

Single Product, Distinctive Packaging, And 24 New Aircraft

There will be just one version of FS-ACOF with all the goodies you could ever want built right in. It will come in a distinctive metal box package that reflects the sleek lines of aircraft aluminum. This is a very special edition from the ground up.

Starting with 15 modern aircraft that range from the Cessna 172 Skyhawk SP, Schweitzer Sailplane, and Learjet to the massive Boeing 747-400. FS-ACOF also adds the Robinson R-22 Helicopter. Each plane has fully operational interactive 3D virtual cockpits.

Learjet 45, one of 15 new modern aircraft you'll get in FS-ACOF
The complete list of modern aircraft includes:

The real treats are the nine fabulous historic aircraft. Each one is equipped with 2D and fully interactive 3D virtual panels that use authentic historic gauges. The historic line-up includes:

Ford Trimotor, one of the nine historic aircraft you'll get in FS-ACOF

Now you can get a taste of what Charles Lindbergh experienced as the piloted his Ryan NYP on the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Or, try your hand at wing warping in The Wright Flyer. Re-trace the transcontinental flights in one of America's first airliners, the Ford Trimotor. Go barnstorming in a Curtiss Jenny or fall in love with flight all over again as you take off in a wonderfully detailed DC-3. Follow in Amelia Erhart's footsteps and complete her tragic around-the-world flight. Or, fly into the heart of darkness in an open cockpit biplane as you cross Africa in a Vickers Vimy. But, most of all, you'll want to get the adrenalin pumping as you zoom skyward in a DH-88 Comet (without a doubt the most Sierra Hotel airplane I've seen in a very long time).

New Gauges Both Modern And Historic

FS-ACOF also includes precise working replicas of the Garmin 500 and 295 series GPS with color moving maps and airport information plus a new full-color map view with terrain display that color codes terrain heights. You also get improved support for 3D graphics hardware acceleration in multiple windows across multiple monitors.

The accurate, fully interactive replicas of historic instruments are works of art. What this all adds up to are endless adventures in flight with all the toys you could ever hope for. Travel modern airways with a spot-on simulation of one of aviation's best navaids. Or, time warp to yesteryear and see what it was like to fly with the very first ADF and primitive radio navigation gear. You'll get a taste of what it was like for Lucky Lindy to fly 33 hours across stormy seas without a forward view except for a tiny periscope (actually works in both 2D and 3D panels). Or, find out just how tough is really is to circumnavigate the globe the way Wiley and Amelia did it in their Vegas.

Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis", one of the nine historic aircraft you'll get in FS-ACOF

Don't Just Talk About The Weather, Fly It

FS-ACOF brings us an amazing technological breakthrough in dynamic weather. It will link to the METARS aviation weather database through any Internet connection (broadband or dial-up) to create a dynamic system that automatically generates real world weather, in real time, anywhere in the world you choose to fly. Plus, you get ready-to-fly weather themes that you can edit yourself and much more.

The clouds in FS-ACOF are mind-boggling. Niniane Wang is the Microsoft software design engineer responsible for the breakthrough technology that builds dynamic clouds with complex volumetric textures that actually perform the way real clouds do. This technology is so advanced a technical achievement that Ms. Wang is preparing a technical paper to be presented at the Seybold Computer Graphics Conference. It's truly a blend of science and art.

You can watch the raindrops dance across the cockpit windscreen, see the approach of a growing thunderstorm front, or just feast your eyes on mesmerizing beautiful sunsets on a hazy summer evening. The new Real World Weather System creates a wide range of different weather types that let's you choose from ready-to-fly weather themes or experience automatic live updating that mirrors real-world, real-time weather conditions.

The new graphics engine, along with the entire FS-ACOF application, make extensive use of Intel's new Hyperthreading Technology to produce eye-popping realism while squeezing out every nanosecond of system performance available. While it will all run on a low-powered Pentium 3, if ever there was a reason to upgrade to a hot new Pentium 4, FS-ACOF is it.

Lockheed Vega "Winnie Mae", one of the nine historic aircraft you'll get in FS-ACOF

Air Traffic Control Like You've Always Wanted It

FS-ACOF's ATC features are a massive upgrade over FS2002. The Microsoft team, comprised of pilots with thousands of hours in the cockpit plus an aeronautical engineer, listened to what we wanted and implemented the Top Ten ATC wish list submitted to them by flightsim fans. Simply put, FS-ACOF ATC is more of just about everything you wished for in a realistic and very cool ATC system including:

The new ATC system is much more dynamic and usable than what we saw in FS2002. For example, ATC responds to the weather and will change your flight levels en route as the weather changes dictate. Based on the weather conditions at your destination, ATC will decide whether to vector you for a visual or instrument approach. You can even file a completely new flight plan, en route, and change your destination airport with interactive ATC guiding you every step of the way.

Stunning Scenery And Visual Effects

Nearly 24,000 airports are modeled in FS-ACOF with more high detail airports, new night textures, and vastly expanded taxiway signage.

The AI has been enhanced, too. Now, you'll find AI traffic at almost every airport, both towered and un-towered.

Cessna Caravan and Piper Navajo from San Juan Airlines await the arrival of our little band of intrepid aviation journalists. No flightsim workshop would be complete without a little real world flying and Microsoft did not disappoint us. After an intense day with Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight, Microsoft flew us from Seattle to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands for dinner. A picture perfect ending to just another working day in the life of your faithful Flight Sim newsletter editor.

Interactive Multimedia Content

The Learning Center has been completely re-designed. It epitomizes the change from RTFM to HTML. Essentially a website on the disc, the new Learning Center uses enhanced content from Flying Magazine columnist Lane Wallace, flight instructors Rod Machado and John and Martha King, to clarify, simplify and make flight simulation more fun than ever before. One very cool new feature hyperlinks new and expanded lessons and ground school topics to flights available while the simulation is running that includes a Key Topics visual guide to the features in Microsoft Flight Simulator, direct links to flights and lessons, flight briefings, how-to procedures, aircraft handbooks, and more.

Tools For Add-On Developers

FS-ACOF will include the Gmax 3D modeling tool from Discreet. Microsoft will also release several free software developer kits (SDKs) for AI traffic and weather themes.

Version Information and System Requirements

Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight (version 9.0)
Available in stores Summer 2003
One version at an estimated retail price of $54.95
Windows PC
2000/XP - 128 MB Ram
98/Me - 64 MB Ram
Processor: 450 MHz minimum
Available hard drive space: 1.8 GB
DirectX 9 or later (included with Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight)
Video card: 8 MB/3D with DirectX 7.0 or later drivers
Other: mouse, joystick/yoke, sound card, speakers/headphones
Online/multiplayer: 56.6 kbps modem or LAN

GMS Movie

Click here to download as a zip file a movie (Windows Media Player format) of the new FS-ACOF Garmin 500 GPS in action.

Click here stream a movie online in Windows Media Player format of the new FS-ACOF Garmin 500 GPS in action.

ATC Movie

Click here to download as a zip file a movie (Windows Media Player format) of the new FS-ACOF ATC in action.

Click here to stream a movie online in Windows Media Player format of the new FS-ACOF ATC in action.

Comet Movie

Click here to download as a zip file a movie (Windows Media Player format) of the new FS-ACOF DeHavilland DH-88 Comet in action.

Click here to stream a movie online in Windows Media Player format of the new FS-ACOF DeHavilland DH-88 Comet in action.

Screen Shots

View screen shots of aircraft external views.

View screen shots of panels.

Cap Mason
capmason@flightsim.com


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