Aeroplane Heaven P-47 Packs For FS2002 And FS2004

By Andrew Herd (5 July 2006)

n 1935, the Seversky Aircraft Corporation won a design competition with a single-seat fighter designated the P-35, which was the first all-metal, single seat, retractible landing gear pursuit plane to see service with the USAAC. The Corps had been looking enviously at what was happening in Europe and Japan and had concluded that much as the P-35 represented an advance on the service's existing pursuit planes, its armament of a single .50 and a .30 cal machine gun wasn't going to cut much ice with an angry Messerschmitt. The other problem with the P-35 was that it had a top speed of only 282 mph at 10000 feet and a range of only 800 miles - but astonishing though it seems that anyone could think that way now, war was viewed as a remote concept to the US at the time - so when Republic (into which Seversky had been incorporated) designed the P-43, with an upgraded armament of four fifties and a top speed of 356 mph at 20000 feet, they settled on a range of 650 miles. This was viewed in official circles as being suitable for a home defence fighter in the US in 1939, but it took less than a year for the shortcomings of the P-43 to become apparent, as clashes between Me-109s, Spitfires and Hurricanes demonstrated the need for speed, range and the heaviest possible firepower.

Alexander Kartveli, Republic's chief designer, sat down to figure out what might be done to improve matters in the summer of 1940. The White House still had few worries about being drawn into the European war, but the Air Corps had seen good reasons to hedge its bets, given the long lead times involved in fighter production, which is how Kartveli found himself looking at a requirement for a strategic fighter. The Air Corps wanted everything the P-43 wasn't: high altitude performance, long range, armor plating to protect the pilot, and a heavy punch; requirements which seemingly couldn't be met without building a massive airframe (as it happened, it could be done, as the P-51 would prove, but Republic's design chief was not to know that). Contemplating a blank sheet of paper on his drawing board, Kartveli reasoned that he would need the most powerful engine then available, the 2000 hp Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp, but then he immediately ran into the problem of how to fit all the necessary supercharger and exhaust ducting this powerplant needed into a conventional airframe, so he threw away the rulebook and designed the ducting first before building a fuselage around it, the end result being 'the Jug' as the P-47 affectionately came to be known. When it first flew, the XP-47B prototype turned the scales full loaded at just over 12000 pounds, nearly twice the weight of most of its contemporaries, but once it had been fitted with a four bladed prop, it had a top speed of 412 mph, which was more than even Kartveli had predicted. It had been hoped to get the design combat ready by the spring of 1942, but as things worked out it took a further year before all the bugs were got out and the 56th fighter group could be sent to the UK. When they arrived, the RAF pilots took one look at their enormous steeds and joked that their new friends could dodge incoming by running around inside their cockpits.

The 'razor back' P-47B was the first operational type, but it lacked the range to escort raids deep into the Ruhr valley, despite having 307 gallons of internal fuel. It took a while to figure out the best tactics to use for the new fighter, since Me 109s and FW 190s could outmaneuver and outclimb it at low and medium altitudes - however, both German fighters were slower in a dive and neither could take as much punishment and carry on flying, so the classic 'zoom and boom' evolved, in which P-47 pilots dived on the enemy, made one firing pass and then zoomed back up to altitude again. Once this tactic was evolved, very few P-47s were lost in combat, most casualties occurring when pilots engaged in the dangerous occupation of low level strafing of trains and troop concentrations. Out of interest, most kills in WWII were scored on the first pass against pilots who often hadn't seen their opponent, dogfighting being much rarer than you would imagine if you have taken part in any online warbird simming. The main production run was invested in variants of the long range 'bubbletop' P-47D, which had a top speed of around 428 mph and a service ceiling of 42000 feet, this being succeeded by the P-47G and M (capable of up to 470 mph and used to shoot down V1 flying bombs), with the final production variant being the P47N, which was used in the Pacific theater.

Aeroplane Heaven's P-47 packs simulate the P-47C and D (part one); and the B and N (part two), both available by download from the Pilot Shop and compatible with FS2002 and FS2004 - note that unlike earlier products from this developer, none of the planes will install under CFS. The part one pack weighs in at 62 megs, installing a single variant of the P-47C and four P-47Ds, including a couple of 'razorbacks' and one fitted with the bulged 'Malcolm Hood' which first appeared on RAF fighters as a way of improving rearward visibility. There is no shortage of liveries: the C comes with four schemes, ranging from bare metal 10th AF plane to an RAF P-47 based in the Middle East; there are 8 schemes for the D-22 razorback, starting with a camo RAF plane and ranging through the 319th FS 'Dallas Blonde', to a Luftwaffe evaluation aircraft; a single D-23 from the 348th FG, wearing invasion stripes; seven bubbletop D-25's from an incredible variety of sources, including the Mexican and Brazilian Air Forces, five very colorful US planes (one a tribute to nose artists everywhere); and two Malcolm hood Ds. The planes are equipped for a variety of roles, varying from fighter escorts to ground attack, one of the D-22s for example, having a central drop tank, full rocket racks and a couple of bombs on the wing hard points.

Moving on to the 37 Mb Part Two, there are two liveries for the P-47B, one of them for the Brazilian Air Force; one for an experimental contraprop, the XP-47B; and two for the P-47N, both in bare metal. Alert readers will already have noted that part two only installs a fraction of the range of liveries that are available with part one, but I guess you do get an extra plane in the form of the XP-47B, which is a potent-looking beast if there ever was one. If you want all the variants, the logical way to purchase them is to buy the P-47 Megapack, which offers a substantial saving over buying part one and two individually.

The manual is a twenty four page pdf, designed in the style of the British Air Council's 'Pilot's Notes' series. This makes a good introduction to the P-47, the first half being devoted to descriptions of the various types (and sometimes individual planes) modelled, while the second half covers the cockpit and various different procedures, including startup, landing and all the phases of flight. The P-47 wasn't a particularly complicated aircraft, so although the manual is short, it is more than adequate, although it would have been good to see a section on aerobatics in the Jug, which is what most users will be buying it for, given that FS2004 doesn't actually allow you to use it to shoot down the AI traffic. One point worth noting is that hitting shift-E will not open the canopy as it does in most FS planes, instead it raises the point of view to make taxiing easier; the canopy has to be opened using the cockpit controls.

The visual models are good - as we have come to expect from this experienced FS warbird developer, although not even Aeroplane Heaven's talents are enough to make the Thunderbolt look beautiful. Animations are limited to an opening canopy, the control surfaces, gear, pilot's head, cowl flaps and exhaust flashes. Such of the engine as is visible through the front of the cowling is finely detailed, but there isn't a 'maintenance mode' to show the rest of the Double Wasp. The textures are all in DXT3 format - overall they make a good choice, offering plenty of variety, covering as they do so many different air forces and theatres of war. While some of the planes are in showroom shape, others are well weathered and many have exhaust and cordite staining.

The developers have chosen to include a 2D panel, bucking the growing trend to leave this out in FS warbird sims and concentrate on the virtual cockpit (VC) instead. Allowing for some minor variations, there are two different types of panel, one for models up to the D-23 and the other for the D-25 and P-57N, but the changes are relatively slight and once you have got your head around one panel, you will be able to fly with them all. A couple of the early panels feature some - very demure - pinups, the major interest here being how Aeroplane Heaven managed to get one of the photos stuck in so far behind the mag switch. As usual, the 2D panel perspective is a compromise between what a real pilot sees and what an FS jock needs to see, with the compromise favoring the simmer. If you have become accustomed to the traditional FS warbird panel presentation you won't find anything odd about this, but I would suggest using the VC and using TrackIR if you want the P-47 to be as real as it gets.

With the exception of the rather unlikely positioning of that pin-up, the 2D panel graphics are well edited and well up to the standard of other FS warbird sims from that period. Various pop up panels can be accessed from a set of simicons that are liberally spread about, although a bit more thought could have gone into locating and fine tuning these on the 'late' panels. The only feature that deserves any real criticism in the 2D panels is the 'extra' views (left, right, etc.), which are based on VC graphics and are therefore not as good as the 2D panel in quality terms. The main popups are the engine controls and the radios - the latter being an adaptation of a classic WWII set on the early planes and a Collins stack on the late panels, which is an interesting choice.

The VC is the mode most simmers will use to fly the P-47 as it is a fully 'active' panel, with the vast majority of the useful switches working. The only trouble with it is a purely ergonomic one - fighter cockpits are cramped places and using a hat switch to find the lever so you can crank on another click of flaps without crashing is kind of tricky, but this has been a problem with warbirds in every sim I have ever tried, hence my liking for TrackIR. What the VC does show much better than the 2D panel can is how restricted the view is over the nose of a P-47; if you can see the runway on short final, you are too high on the approach (-:

The flight model isn't bad at all for a plane of this class. Before anyone asks, I have never flown a P-47 and undoubtedly never will, but the best Flight Simulator can offer is a flavor of the flying characteristics of any aircraft, together with reasonably accurate climb rates and performance figures. Taking this into account and allowing for the fact that WWII fighters like the P-47 were designed to be flown long distances into combat by pilots with only a few hundred hours, I would say the flight model is okay other than a twitchiness in pitch that may be something to do with Aeroplane Heaven's faithful reproduction of the P-47's sensitivity to the trim tab. I flew all kinds of maneuvers ranging from touch-and-gos to Cubans and didn't run into any problems, other than the fact that I couldn't make the plane spin; but then P-47s didn't spin, not unless you really took some time out and forced them into one. Running through the entire performance envelope gave me a good opportunity to listen to the sound set and I like it a lot - particularly the way that big radial grumbles and spits when you throttle back for landing.

Verdict? The best set of P-47s available, no question about it - and great value for money.