Highly Recommended Aviation and Flightsim Sites
I will not start another uncommented link page with dozens of links. In fact, I am still skeptical about this page. However, there are some sites I would like to recommend to you because they offer something extraordinary and you may not know about them.
Refresh this page to reorder the list of recommendations.
The Mid-Atlantic-Air-Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, is host to a great and beautiful collection of military and civil aircraft from the Golden Age to early 1960. Known for its ambitious projects, they currently restore one of the four remaining Northrop P-61 Black Widow to flyable state.
To financially support these activities MAAM has released three extraordinary fine flight simulator models: the North American B-25J Mitchell, the Douglas C-47 Skytrain and the Grumman TBF Avenger. The details of the simulations are impressive, e.g. oil dripping engines. All models are for FS9, but the B-25 and the C-47 can be tweaked to work perfectly with FSX SP2 Acceleration in DirectX9 mode. In the MAAM support forum you will find a description how to do that.
Hopefully MAAM will re-release their work for FSX in the future. The models are in the range of $30, and every penny goes into the museum.
I like to mention Air-to-Air Simulations, formerly known as Shockwave Productions, because of their unique product portfolio. Their WW-II aircraft are extremely beautiful and, according to the forum feedback, show very accurate flight behaviour. I can not comment on that, but fact is the models are fun to fly.
The "WW-II Heavy Bombers and Jets" package contains: Boeing B-17, Boeing B-29, Consolidated B-24, Consolidated PB4Y-2, Avro Lancaster, Arado Ar-234, Focke-Wulf Ta-183 and Heinkel He-162. It sells for $20 plus shipping. The "WW-II Fighter" package consists of: North American P-51, Supermarine Spitfire, Republic P-47D, Messerschmitt Bf-109 and Mitsubishi A6M5. This package has a $30 price tag. Many aircraft are available as separate downloads, e.g. the Heinkel He-219 or the Curtiss P-40. These separate downloads are between $25 and $33 each.
Like everybody else A2A has shifted their focus to FSX. Most of their older models can be tweaked to work flawlessly in FSX SP2 Acceleration in DirectX9 mode. But in addition A2A will lay hands on some of their older products like the WW-II Fighter Package and rework them as native FSX models. This is what I call excellent customer care.
April 2010: The Accusim B-17 is just unbelievable. For once the saying is not exaggerated - this aircraft lifts your flight simulator experience to a new border.
Airliners.Net is an aviation website with over a million aircraft photographs. Supported by a good database engine, you can easily search for specific tags like aircraft type, airline, country and more. All photos are commented and usually of high quality.
Access to the photos can be gained with a free account. If you want to participate in the forum of the Airliners.Net community, you need at least a Premium Membership, which means a one-time payment of $25. The First Class Membership cost is $5 per month. The benefits are no advertising, photos without watermarks, webspace and access to the news service.
While military traffic is most obviously missing in the FlightSim skies, civil traffic can be improved as well. Several groups have gained a high reputation of making excellent freeware AI. While one opts for most detailed aircraft with the least possible frame impact, the other aims at most realistic real world flight plans.
If you only know Microsoft's default AI, have a look at the work of the groups mentioned above. You are in for a surprise. If you feel uncomfortable with the installation of these packages, but you still want to improve your artificial traffic, check out the commercial alternatives MyTrafficX and Ultimate Traffic.
Vertigo Studios, founded by Dean Greasley, offer a fine selection of FSX aircraft, amongst others the F6F Hellcat, F8F Bearcat, F9F Panther, P36 Hawk, SBD Dauntless and then TBM Avenger. All aircraft have been highly rated on various flightsimmer reviews.
Tony Smith has compiled a very detailed and excellently structured compilation of important and interesting FS links. If you want to find out what flightsim related sites you might have missed so far, this is a good point to start.
Since the launch of the Scramble Magazine website in 1997, it has been visited over 15 million times and it currently welcomes more than 10000 visitors a day. And that for a reason. Open to non-subscribers as well, you can search in several online databases. Provided is e.g. information about military and civil aircraft registration numbers per country.
The Alpha-India Group, founded 2008, is a team with excellent civil AI competence for the Microsoft Flight Simulator. They create flight plans, ai aircraft models ( Antonov AN-124, Boeing 757 or Pilatus PC-12 to name just a few) and airports (both for FS9 and FSX).
Beyond that, they host a very friendly forum which is a great place to gather knowledge and find friendly, helpful people and which I highly recommend to visit.
Some time ago Ray Parker started to astound people with very good repaints. It was not only the superior quality (check out his Tornado special livery in the logo above) but as well the amount of his work that made him a big fan base. Today he is not only repainting but has gone into modeling as well.
On his web site you can see and download everything he has released and get a sneak preview on what he is currently working on.
Two sites serve the FlightSim Community with all aspects. They offer uncountable free flightsim downloads - aircraft, repaints, scenery and tools - for every version since FS98. They review new free and commercial products. They host tutorials and forums where you find help and new ideas. They offer information. They are institutions.
AVSim and FlightSim.Com are the answer for every flightsim novice who has played two weeks with his original Microsoft Flight Simulator setup and then asks ... and now?
While an increasing number of great western military AI aircraft have become available over the last years, there was practically no representation of their Russian counterparts. This has changed for good, thanks to the great contribution of Sergey Bunevich (sib2217), who has released (among many others) stunning models from Antonov (An-8, An-12), Mikoyan (MiG-25, MiG-29), Sukhoi (Su-27) and Tupolev (Tu-22, Tu-22M). I know more is coming, and I very much look forward to his next releases.
He has now a dedicated website where he presents his work. Don't shy away from the fact that web site is in Russian - you will find your way around.
At this point I like to say thank you to AVSim.Ru who now offer an English language interface to their web site. Check out their site, and find yourself the gorgeous Su-24 of Sergey Ivanov (scorpio9999) and many other great downloads.
Frank Safranek runs a Flight Simulator site dedicated to the Dassault Mirage aircraft. You will find a comprehensive overview about flyable and AI models, panels, sounds and sceneries. While mostly centered around the Mirage you will find many bits and pieces about other Dassault aircraft like the Mystere, the Etendard and the Rafale. A foto gallery, real aviation information and a review section - all centering around these great French aircraft - complete the site offering.
This site is a must to visit if you are even faintly interested in French military aircraft.
With Super Traffic Board Simon Jones has created a most valuable tool for those who work with AI traffic. Personally I use this program when I am working on flight plans. You can easily view and follow AI aircraft, both on ground and in the air. You see what phase each aircraft is curently in (boarding, taxi, deprted etc.). Aircraft can be forced to depart now or can be deleted. All this presented in a stylish flight information like interface. Super Traffic Board come with a comprehensive user guide.
A tool highly recommended for those who expect control over AI traffic instead of just watching it.
FreewareSceneries lists titels and links for Freeware sceneries (mostly airports, some meshes and landclasses), ordered by country, in a separate section for FS2002, FS2004 and FSX.
If you look for a specific airport, Robert-Jan Oosterloo has provided us with probably the most conveniant way to start the search.
And Robert-Jan has done it again.... The newest additions are similar overviews for commercial FS9 and FSX sceneries.
David Cenciotti is an Italian journalist who has specialized on Aviation and everything associated. He has written several book, e.g. "Frecce Tricolori - an exciting 50 year flight", the only official book of the Italian Air Force for the 50th Anniversary of the Frecce Tricolori display team.
He is running the very exciting blog The Aviationist with many news and in-depth reports that you hardly find at other places of the web. Also his excellent pictures are well worth a look.
Daryl Payne is another paint brush artist who can make an already great model even better. Check out his paints at his web presence, plus quiet a few sceneries he and Brian Clarke made over the years.
This page was last modified on Monday, 11 September 2023 - 19:47