Introduction: The Boeing 747-400 is the latest version of the 747 released by Boeing. Nicknamed ‘Jumbo Jet’ by normal commuters, it used to be the world's Largest Aircraft and Largest Airliner (now beaten by the Airbus A380). The original version of the aircraft was released in the late 1960’s. Building the airplane in less than 16 months, the creators became very famous. In its day, the aircraft was as big as it gets. It was originally designed and released to reduce prices due to the high density of people traveling around the world. The 747-400 model was released in 1988 creating unimaginable distances an aircraft could travel which was further extended by the 747-400ER (Extended Range) which had a range of up to 8826 miles. “The 747 was truly monumental in size. The massive airplane required construction of the 200-million-cubic-foot 747 assembly plant in Everett, Wash., the world's largest building (by volume). The fuselage of the original 747 was 225 feet long; the tail as tall as a six-story building. Pressurized, it carried a ton of air. The cargo hold had room for 3,400 pieces of baggage and could be unloaded in seven minutes. The total wing area was larger than a basketball court. Yet, the entire global navigation system weighed less than a modem” Was the description given by the true size of the 747 from the Boeing’s website, and that is just the 747-100. Being one of the world’s longest traveling, largest 4 jet engine aircraft, it was truly going into the books for one of the best known aircraft by people all around the world. It was and still is famous and loved in today’s aviation world. Another reason was because it was the first aircraft to have a partial "double deckered" cabin arrangement. The IFLY Developing Team have done a great job on this Aircraft, with the exterior and interior models having as much possible similarities as the real 747. It comes default with 9 liveries and you can add a lot more. It is a .exe file for easier installation and has an uninstall option. To top up this amazing aircraft, the IFLY Team has made the aircraft absolutely FREE. YES!!! It’s a freeware. Installation and Documentation: Installation is nice and simple. Simply install it like any other program. Extract all files to your desktop (if its in a .zip file) and double click the setup.exe folder. If it asks you to minimize during install, click on OK. (you can alternatively start the setup straight away from the .zip file as long as you don’t close anything). Then wait until it finishes its preparation to install. Click ‘NEXT’ on the next window to start the installation. Now click on whatever you like to install. ‘Typical’ is normally chosen and click on NEXT Then click on Install to begin the installation of the aircraft. After the install finishes, click on the ‘Finish’ Button. Once installed, you should be able to access the Aircraft from with FS. You can also find a little icon on the Start Menu saying IFLY where you can find the Manuals for the aircraft and the uninstall option. All this comes with a 324 Page Operations Manual and a 7 page Procedures Introduction.
Exterior Models: The IFLY 747-400 comes with only 1 default model but with about 8 – 10 different liveries, including a customized IFLY livery. You can add a lot more liveries that can be found on many websites. The textures are almost a perfect replica of what they look like in real life. Even the extra added on textures look near real. The advanced animation goes a long way. This model includes engine cowlings, control surfaces, including flaps, slots and slats, rolling wheels, turning nose wheel, opening doors, lights and a few more things. It is a really enjoyable model to look at while you are cruising along on a flight. It looks just like a real 747-400 with all the features including the sloppy wheels while airborne and undercarriage doors. The detail is so extensive that you can even see the small decals used for the direction to open doors. The engine cowlings also open when you press Shift + E + 2 showing a detailed look on the inside.
Interior Models: The Boeing IFLY 747-400 comes with Cockpit, Virtual Cockpit and even a Cabin View. Each livery is shown 3 times on your aircraft section. One has just Cockpit, one has VC and Cockpit and the last has Cabin, VC and Cockpit. (For the Cabin, you just use the move button [ctrl + backspace, shift + backspace, etc] from the VC mode. A few of the buttons are non-operational in the VC mode even though they work in the cockpit mode opening the particular display up (e.g. Over Head panel on 2D cockpit has most buttons working while a few of them don’t work on VC). The VC also has animations for the movement of buttons (IN / OUT), the yoke, and the rudder pedals. The Carpet in the VC however looks horrible (but I just recently came across an add-on that fixes it up). The cockpit is similar to the cockpit of Payware 747’s but less features are display when zoomed in. You can also additionally activate the Throttle Quadrant, Over Head Panel, Radio Stack, FMC and a Compass. Overall, the interior cockpit of the IFLY 747-400 is really detailed. Proof of this detail is the brightness adjuster of the display units.
Cockpit Instruments: The Cockpit Instruments are the most advanced instruments you can get in any FS add-on. This is one of the only FREEWARE aircraft with a FMC and TCAS. The ND displays the route just like any other payware aircraft having an option for APP, VOR, MAP and PLN with distances from 10NM to 640NM. The TCAS is very advanced; it can detect aircraft and maneuver you away from them like other models. The FMC is very much like any other aircraft’s FMC in features and the form of entry. The fuel entry (PEF INIT) on the FMC is very faulty especially on long hauls where it says insufficient fuel and MAX ALT FLNN at times, due to small faults even after entering all the data in properly (but you can still use that amount of fuel and fly at the altitude without faults). The only problem is the pilot getting annoyed.
Also, the NAV Data on the IFLY 747-400 is hard to get. It is also hard to configure it and place it in the right folder and get it to work. It normally doesn’t update on the FMC. It is missing many airways and fixes around the world. There are updates and it can use updates from other add-ons but some of the NAV add-ons are payware and the freeware ones are hard to get working (even though documentation says it's possible). Just remember, this is a freeware aircraft and all these problems are outweighed by the useful features of the aircraft.
Flight Dynamics:
The Flight Dynamics of this aircraft are very realistic. When in the air, it feels like you really are in the cockpit of a 747 flying the skies like a bird. But on the ground, you don't have as much maneuverability as the nose gear steering does not working and steering is solely from the rudder. Unless you travel really slowly, the aircraft doesn’t make turns (really slow meaning about 3-5kts). If above 7kts you can almost guarantee that it will turn onto the grass. Also, when on the ground with no throttle, the aircraft starts moving slowly forward so it is necessary to have the parking brakes on if you are going to stay stationary for a long time with the engines running. When on the take off roll and the landing roll, the lack of steering in the aircraft means that if you have more than about a 10 knots crosswind, the aircraft will go off the runway, even with full rudder. Apart from those defects, the aircraft behaves absolutely fantastic in the air. The only problem may be when the ailerons randomly start flapping up and down rapidly on the aircraft (feels like turbulence) Sound: This aircraft has many different varieties of realistic sounds. This includes the pitch going higher while powering up, to the touchdown screech of the aircraft while landing. Other sounds also include a full functional GPWS and warnings, including the TCAS Alert, Wind shear and the warning that is received while taking off without flaps or spoilers extended. Closing Remarks: The aircraft, as good as it may be, is reasonably frame rate friendly. You do lose frames, but to a limited standard. All the bad features it may have, it is an extremely operational and realistic aircraft in regards to features such as TCAS and FMC, which are not included in many other aircraft. The highlight to wrap it all up, It's freeware. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
