Freeware Focus

Kirk Olsson has produced some of the all time most popular freeware aircraft. His F-16 "Viper" is the most well known, but he is responsible for a number of others, going back several flight simulator generations. Learn more about the add-ons he and various collaborators have created by reading Andrew Herd's complete review.

The local radio station calls it "two-fer Tuesday", offering two songs from the same artist. Here we have our own version of two-fer Tuesday, with our second article on prolific aircraft artist Mike Stone. When two of our volunteer reviewers wanted to examine Mike's work we thought why not as there's plenty to examine. Today Phil Colvin presents his tribute to Mike along with a nice screen shot gallery highlighting the wide variety of designs available.

Anyone familiar with our file library is surely familiar with the name of Mike Stone, who has given us a wide variety of freeware aircraft. Some of his designs are mainstream, highly popular models while others are much less well known but taken as a collection there's surely something for everyone. We couldn't possibly review all of Mike's planes, so today reviewer Eric van der Veen samples a few of them, covers Mike's design philosophy and also interviews the designer himself.

A profile of the DeHavilland DH89A Dragon Rapide design team lead by David Garwood.

A profile of the FS-Design Berlin team concentrating on their Lockheed L-10A Electra release.

A focus on the popular Daviator Stearman Kaydet biplane created by David Eckert.

A few designers have devoted themselves to a single aircraft, and come out continuously with better and better versions. In the case of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, one of the best fighter aircraft of WWII, that designer is David Copley. Learn more about his designs, including his latest "Definitive Lightning" by reading Andrew Herd's review here. Expanded coverage now includes information on additional repaints available plus Voice Buddy support for the Lightning plus links to the new P-38L Racer.

Tim Conrad has made a name for himself among aircraft designers as a creator of "peculiar" aircraft--flying wings, spaceships, etc. as well as more normal craft like trainers, military jets and such. His work has certainly attracted the attention of flightsimmers looking for something other than common airliners and other such planes and today we shine the spotlight on Tim and his creations. Read Phil Colvin's complete feature story starting here.

A profile of the Commander team: Milton Shupe, Scott Thomas, Joao Paz and Andre Folkers.