Freeware Preview - Boeing 797: A Replacement For The 737 Family

By Ron Blehm (4 November 2015)

The Boeing 737 is, beyond a doubt, the best-selling aircraft model ever; over 8,400 delivered since 1967 and as of this writing about 13,000 firm orders. (Currently the A320 family is outselling the 737 family but Boeing had a 20-year head start over Airbus) The Boeing 737 has seen many reincarnations since the popular -200 version. There were new engines on the -300, the larger -400, the "next generation" -700, the stretched -900, the MAX, the winglets, the sharklets, etc. For the most part however, the basic design of the model has been unchanged - I even read somewhere that the shape of the cockpit, the windows and nosecone all harken back to the 707 days.

Well, the beautiful thing about FS is that we can fly all of these variants of the 737 any time we want. There is another beautiful thing however. There are freeware designers who can take real or imagined concepts or ideas or designs and make them available to us as well. Enter Camil Valiquette. He's been uploading onto www.flightsim.com since 1996; he's still uploading aircraft to this day (picture below, left). Between the files on www.flightsim.com and other FS web sites including his own (http://pages.videotron.com/camsim), he estimates that he has produced well over 1,000 aircraft models for FS! Mr. Valiquette has taken on the challenge of making other people's ideas reality long before any of us get a vision of the reality. He has also made a special niche by offering models with "Animated Ground Services" so that you can have air-stairs and baggage and fuel at any airport in the world! (I'm using version 2, new releases have version 5.) See pictures below center and right.

Example: I was flying his 787s back in 2007! Okay, that was like, so last decade! But back then, while Boeing hadn't even flown their first prototype, Mr. Vilaquette's designs allowed me to fly not only the 787-8 but also the 787-9 and 787-10 and the Super-11!

"Wait, those exist?"

Exactly my point. It is likely somewhat easier to design aircraft that have given us numbers to go by, but CamSim have focused on aircraft that haven't yet taken to the air. This in itself makes his work special but it's not the point of my writing this article. You see, I'm not a big, heavy, wide-body kind of pilot. I really like my Embraer jets and 735s. What really caught my eye was this "797". I was familiar with the infamous BWB / flying wing but Mr. Valiquette offered that the, "B797 should become, with a design based on the 787, the 737 replacement." (Picture below, left.)

Okay, this is a little brilliant. Rather than going bigger or longer or just adding new wings, let's take our new technology and truly replace something that arguably is 50 years old (picture above, center). In the CamSim 797 you have an aircraft that is the size and weight of a 734 but it hauls as many passengers as a 739 and has the range of a 757! Who wouldn't love that (picture above, right)? And, with a 2-3-2 seating layout in the elliptical, carbon-fibre fuselage it likely would feel roomier on a 7-hour flight than the single-aisle 757. This design is based on information from Boeing's Yellowstone, Y1 project if you'd like to research that information further (picture below, left).

So, I downloaded the CamSim 797 (which I admit is old and dated now). Ultimately I was not at all happy with the handling or controls but I loved the concept of a 737 replacement (and I love the look). So, I've worked on the porpoising and the ground handling and the power and the fuel flow and the flaps timing and the lift and drag values and ... I feel like I basically tore down Camil's work, left the basic frame and then reconstructed things to my own standards (picture above, right). I put in a 777 panel and 787 sounds. I've spent the past month tweaking and trying and reworking all of these subtle little details (who knew that moving the main gear values may help ground handling but could screw up landing!?) and more than likely it's not perfect (like my Embraer jets) but I'm exceedingly happy with my "Brand New 737 Replacement"!

I am calling this article a PREview because the upgraded version of the 797 with version 5 of the Animated Ground Servicing, is expected in early 2016 and should be amazing! I have downloaded and tried the new versions of CamSim's 787s and A350s (both with updated Ground Servicing) and they have undergone tremendous changes and upgrades since I last tried them years ago (picture below, left). If you like the 787s or A350s I encourage you to go into the file library and download these and try them out yourselves (picture below, right).

Here's the deal for the 797, I will offer this model with my CFG tweaks, to anyone who wants it; I've made several of my own, fictional repaints as well and this is all done with Camil's blessing of course.

So, if you'll email me, I'll send you the CamSim model from 2007 with my CFG tweaks from FSX/2015 and a "couple" of repaints. (The base model and paint kit and other repaints are already available for free in the file library).

I offered this model with my CFG changes to a certain virtual airline but they did not want something that, "we won't see in the air for another 15 years." Well folks, you can have this aircraft now!

I have chosen to NOT put my changes into the File Library because I don't want to muddy the waters when the official CamSim 797 v5 comes out. As I say, I expect the new 797s to be awesome and the updated Animated Ground Servicing will be a great feature as well and it's something that I will eagerly download at my first convenience.

"Stand-by world, I have a new aircraft and I'm headed your way!"

Ron Blehm
pretendpilot@yahoo.com