AVSIM Special Feature Screenshot Tribute to FS2002 Part 1

There remains substantial evidence that man first took to the air in primitive gliders and primitive hot air balloons—maybe as early as 3,000 BC. And there is believable evidence that man took to the air in a powered aircraft before the Wright Brothers did, but the first sustained and controlled powered flight occurred on December 17th, 1903. (In those cases where someone claimed they had acheived powered flight before the Wright Bros., they were unable to duplicate their flights, but within days of their first flight, the Wright Brothers were publically demonstrating their Wright Flyer by flying several miles and were able to return to their takeoff point with ease.)

Because the location of Kitty Hawk (where the first flight occurred) was somewhat difficult to get to, there were no reporters on site for the event. The Wright Bros. had specifically chosen this site because of its isolation, as they felt it was best to keep their invention away from the prying eyes of those that might steal their engineering ideas. The Wright Bros. were business men that felt they deserved a royalty for every powered aircraft that would fly following their having made that first flight and after having received a patent for the powered airplane. In 1908 Wilbur, while brother Orville was completing the sale of the Wright Flyer to the US Army, took the Wright Flyer to Europe (France). It was in France where he hoped to demonstrate their invention and sell manufacturing licensing fees to the interested parties there, but his demonstrations backfired. The sight of the Wright Flyer maneuvering in the air only awakened a hidden passion within the French engineers, a passion to develop their own aircraft and aircraft industry, which they did quite successfully during the years before WWI.

One man, Lord Northcliffe, had traveled from England to watch the Wright Flyer being demonstrated at an auto racetrack, near the French town of LeMans, and so enthusiastic was Lord Northcliffe that he had his paper, the Daily Mail, offer up a 1,000 pound ($5,000 USD) prize for the first person to fly across the English Channel. Lord Northcliffe secretly offered Wilbur Wright an additional bonus of 1,500 pounds ($7,500 USD) if he would fly the Wright Flyer from France over to England, but Wilbur turned him down as he stated they (he and his brother Orville) were not into performing stunts. The real reason Wilbur turned down the offer was that he didn't believe the Wright Flyer could successfully make the 26 miles and when he failed, as he was sure would be the result, it would negatively effect the attempt at licensing the French factories to build the Wright Flyer.

After finishing up some contract obligations, in the spring of 1909 to train French and Italian men to fly the Wright Flyer, Wilbur returned to America which opened the door for several French engineers to go after the Daily Mail Prize. With the Wrights back in America and tied up in court to protect their invention, Hurbert Latham, a wealthy French sportsman-playboy, was the first to attempt the English Channel crossing on July 19th, in a beautifully designed Antoinette IV monoplane (designed by the rather large and overweight French engineer, Leon Levavasseur), but his engine failed after only reaching 7 miles off the coast of France at Calais. A French destroyer picked Hurbert up from the English Channel, who was casually sitting on his floating Antoinette smoking a cigarette, and he returned to a hero's welcome back at Calais. Latham was scheduled to try again on the 25th, but while he slept-in that morning, Louis Bleriot took off in his Bleriot XI monoplane and Louis arrived in England after a 37 minute flight. So it was another French engineer pilot that took the Daily Mail Prize and it was Bleriot that would sell his monoplane to the French military.

In the four years after Wilbur had returned to America, the French dominated every advancement and/or record achieved in aviation. In 1913 French aviator, Maurice Prevost, flew his Deperdussin Monoplane to a new speed record of 127 mph, while another French pilot, Marcel Brindejonc de Moulinais, flew a Morane-Saulnier nearly 900 miles from Paris to Warsaw, all in one day. That same year, Roland Garros, flew his Morane-Saulnier monoplane from France across the Mediterranean to Africa.

By 1913, the French aviation industry simply dominated the aviation market and interestingly enough, it was the French Automaker, Peugeot, that entered two cars in the Indianapolis 500, two cars equipped with their latest aviation engine, that won that All-American auto race every year they entered (1913, 1914, and 1915). You auto enthusiasts can appreciate what Peugeot had done, years and years ahead of everyone, as their little 4-cylinder engine featured twin overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, flow-thru hemispherical heads, fuel-injection, a supercharger, and a pressurized oil system, all in 1913! Even though that specific engine was never used in any aircraft, many of the engineering design concepts were. It's ironic that it took the US and Japanese auto manufacturers nearly 85 years to realize that Peugeot had got it right in their first try.

Once Wilbur and Orville Wright proved that their Wright Flyer really did fly, advancements in aviation design evolved very quickly and by the end of World War I in 1918, powered aircraft design included mono-winged aircraft that could easily fly in excess of 150 mph and approach altitudes greater than 20,000 feet. Aircraft design improvements were showing up everywhere—better and more efficient engines, vastly improved instruments, along with lighter and stronger airframe designs that included fully enclosed cockpits—but despite all these advancements, particularly with the use of aircraft in warfare, aviation and powered flights were still considered a novelty or even a passing fad by many in the general public.

Reliving this era in FS2002 has been made easy by the large number of high quality 3rd party aircraft designs that are available to the flight sim hobbyist. With FS2002, the active flight simmer can go back and relive those earliest days of aviation and even try your hand at the combat aircraft of WWI as well as a few of the early record breakers.

It all started here with Orville and Wilbur Wright's "Wright Flyer", which took to the air on the morning of December 17th, 1903. This FS version was designed by Paul Beardsley of Golden Eagle Squadron and is freeware (AVSIM Library). Paul's latest (v3.0) release includes period scenery from Kitty Hawk. The real Wright Flyer is currently at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC and here I have Paul's Wright Flyer sitting on the grass just east of Microsoft's version of that museum.	In the years between the "First Flight" in 1903 and the beginning of World War I, several workable designs took off. A few from the US, but most were designed in France.	Glenn Curtiss (USA) had a number of working designs, as did several German and French designers. Among those shown is the famous 1909 Bleriot XI (Golden Eagle Squadron) in which Louis Bleriot was the first to cross the English Channel.
In the 19teens, aircraft design advanced rapidly as is the usual effect of war. New names began appearing, names like, Fokker, Neuport, Spad, Sopwith, along with many others. This Fokker D-VII shown here was designed for FS2002 by Stuart Green and is typical of the better FS designs of aircraft from this era that became available for FS2002.	As the war progressed, so did the aircraft and it was the French that came up with the idea of calling their air heros "ACES," after they had 5 confirmed kills—but it was the Germans that perfected it; the most famous group of German Aces was Manfred Baron Von Richthofen and his "Flying Circus" where each pilot had his own brightly custom painted aircraft, with Manfred Baron Von Richthofen himself displaying a bright red Fokker tri-wing—hence his nickname of "The Red Baron."	The air aces of that war (WWI) were looked upon as being gallant, were revered as gentlemen, and basically were considered modern-day knights of the sky. When either Commander Brown or the Australian ground soldiers (it has never been determined exactly who did it) successfully shot-down the Red Baron, he received a hero's funeral in Paris. That level of respect directed toward enemy pilots would not be carried over in the next war.

"Screenshot Tribute to FS2002" continues here:
Part 2: FS2002 Screenshots for 1921-1939