I own most of all the payware aircraft up to the Meridian & CS727 and I can tell you that I CAN'T WAIT to setup a living, breathing dawn low ceiling broken or scattered weather condition and take off from the coast myself! I fly as a private pilot and I can tell you some of the best moments I have had are right before sunrise out of the NorthEast where the dew is still on the planes and ground and get airborne just as the sun is peeking over the horizon with low scattered clouds. Breath taking and peaceful & if I can get close to recreating that with the first recognized aircraft it would be something great to me!Just my 2 cents of course.

To be honest, the DH88 looks to be more to my liking than the DH106 anyway. ;-)

>"Microsoft..., I believe you've just made my summer! Between the Wiley Post Winnie Mae Vega and this beautiful de Havilland air racer, it is unlikely anyone will hear from me for months!"Me too! :-jumpy

The DH106 would have made a beautiful addition to the line up of new aircraft :(Forget the X-1! All the groundwork was done by the British. De Havilland even had a "proper" aeroplane to break the sound barrier, ie one that had an air breathing engine and could take off and land under its own power. A great plane for the speed freaks would have been the Fairey FD2 - the first aircraft to fly faster than 1,000mph.BTW, the Vimy was (among other things) the first aircraft to be flown non stop across the Atlantic (in 1919 IIRC).

Hey Bear,I also wanted to point out the preview videos available for d/l at Flightsim.com. They have a total of 10 (8 + the GPS and ATC video AvSim has). Do a search for FS2004. They were posted a couple of days ago.

>Stan, >>You do realize that Microsoft is one of the companies >sponsering the traveling interactive flight displays of the >"First Flight" don't you? Provided by Microsoft, along with >Boeing and other sponsers, you can fly the Wright Flyer, >including a seating arangement where you lay on your stomach >to fly the MS designed simulation, which will appear at many >of the key air show and air events this spring and summer. >If you were to release a simulation package titled "Century >of Flight", it would be assumed that at mimimum there are >two aircraft that must be included; the Wright >Flyer and the Ryan NYP! I cannot think >of any other two aircraft that are as significant to the >history of flight as those two! If you think about it, the >choices that MS made are rather well thought out. >>1. Wright Flyer (first >aircraft to make a controlled powered sustained flight) >>2. Ryan NYP (first solo >non-stop trans-Atlantic flight) >>3 & 4. For the highest >percentage of pilots in the 20th century, their first flight >experience was most likely in either a Curtiss JN-4 >Jenny or a Piper Cub. >>5 & 6. Douglas DC-3 and >Ford Tri-Motor, two of the world's first "practical" >airliners. >>7. Vickers Vimy (many of the >earlist flight records were set with this aircraft) >>8. Lockheed Vega (Winnie >Mae), Wiley Post was first to fly around the world >with this aircraft. >>9. Comet DH-88, world's >first jet airliner, which flew years before the Boeing 707. >Had it not been for its square window design, Britain and de >Havilland would be the world's driving force for commercial >airliners rather than the USA and Boeing. >>I would have also liked to of seen the Bell X-1 and Sikorsky >S-38 or S-39 included, but what the heck, those they choose >are pretty cool! >>Bear! Sorry Bear, but the first successfull flight with an aircraft weighter than air, powered by an engine, was made by a brazilian called Santos Dummont with an aircraft called 14-bis in the year of 1906 in Paris, France.Regards from Brazil,Rodrigo.

>"Sorry Bear, but the first successfull flight with an aircraft weighter than air, powered by an engine, was made by a brazilian called Santos Dummont with an aircraft called 14-bis in the year of 1906 in Paris, France."Let's see, 1903 vs. 1906. Hmmm, who was first again???? While there have been many challenges over the years to the Wrights, their flight at Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk, NC on Dec 17th, 1903 has been WIDELY accepted time and time again as the first true manned, powered, controlled, and sustained flight.PS;http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wr.../1906/WR9G1.htmSantos Dummont's flight was the first observed flight of more than 25 Meters observed in EUROPE.http://aviation-history.com/early/wright.htmhttp://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wr...t/timeline.htmlThe Wright Brothers flew 4 times on Dec 17th 1903. The longest flight of that day covered a distance of 852 feet (before the 1903 Flyer was damaged by a gust of wind). Santos' flight of 1906 covered 722 feet.Any questions???

I would agree that there are FAR more planes that should be ahead of the Wright Flyer on the list to be added to FS. Not that it didn't make much of a difference, I obviously did, just that its kind of boring ot be flying at 10 MPH for a grand total of twelve seconds.

It's kind of a no win situation for Microsoft as far as this subject is concerned with our community.-If Microsoft focused on the "heavy metal" in FS9, GA and historical aircraft people wouldn't be happy.-If Microsoft focused on GA and historical aircraft in FS9, "heavy metal" people wouldn't be happy.But, you can't please overone, and I think Microsoft is actually doing the right thing here. You only get to celebrate a "Century of Flying" one, and I believe Microsoft is celebrating it in the right way. While I typically fly 3rd-Party Addons, I think taking the Wright Flyers and the other historical aircraft up once and awhile will be kind of fun. :-)Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)ASRC (Advanced Simulated Radar Client) Beta Testerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 30.82 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click Here to Download my American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

Been reading all the hoopla about the new FS release and finally had to comment. I already have extremely fine versions of all the "antique" planes already and doubt very much if any of the MS versions will compare in any way to them. Long live 3rd party developers!Also, I have all FSGenesis mesh, Landclass and FScene visuals installed along with FS Sky world SE clouds-- kicked off with FSMetro. So am not at all of the opinion the new FS is worth the trouble to install. I'd much rather invest the $$ in more of the excellent payware birds which continue to come out. I'll just stick with my beat up old FS2K2 for the foreseeable future.This of course is just my humble opinion, I could be wrong 8>)Racartronit means something, but I just can't remember what.

It can be argued, however, that neither of these are correct. It is believed that one Richard Pearce of New Zealand flew the first powered flight on March 31 1902.http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.htmlRegardsRussell Jourdain (NZL007/ZK-RHJ)

>Thanks for the clearifcation on that point. I am not that fimilar with the early de Havilland aircraft and I assumed that the DH88 was the jet airliner. Made more sense to me that Microsoft would have included the world's first jet airliner rather than a racer, but I'm not privey to their thinking on this. Its also rather unusual that an aircraft manufacturer would use the name "Comet" on two completely different types of aircraft? Interesting.

This is a good marketing angle to pull the sim forward while, at the same time, widening the consumer base and anchoring the positioning of MSFS as the reference in public computerized aeronautics. Once this strategy is set, the rest follows (array of planes, PR, etc...) Very, very, sensible move indeed.

I am aware of Richard Pearce (in fact, I heard a lecture about him when I was in University), however, the lack of any verifiable documentary evidence, coupled with the lack of credible eyewitness accounts at THE TIME OF HIS FLIGHTS doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny. The simple fact is the Wright Brothers are INTERNATIONALLY recognized as the first to fly under the components of "manned, powered, sustained and most critically - controlled."PS; I don't believe any accounts of Mr. Pearce have him accomplishing all components prior to the Wrights.

"I would agree that there are FAR more planes that should be ahead of the Wright Flyer on the list to be added to FS. Not that it didn't make much of a difference, I obviously did, just that its kind of boring ot be flying at 10 MPH for a grand total of twelve seconds."to you maybe, to others that is the true meaning of aviation. To each his own, not everyone agees on the same thing. I personally believe there are more than enough "heavy metal" releases out there (and repaints to match!), I am a rotory wing flyer (helicopters) and would love to see more support in FS9 in this area Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpg