robert is this going to be a completely new model for a separate price or will it be an upgrade that requires the original model?

I hope it's a separate product with a discount for current Duke owners. Either way, I'm buying it.

Here...from the man,"So we'll of course be offering a discount to piston Duke owners but it won't be free - after a year or so of tweaking and developing.I can also confirm that take off will be extremely lively and there is lots of power in those pratt and whitney turbines....1000 feet run achievable and at least 4,000 fpm initial climb.We're close to final testing now but we don't like to anticipate release dates until we are sure things are finalised. It will be quite soon though. Thanks very much for everyone's interest"!Rob Young - RealAir

"Turbine engines are very tricky to model accurately within FSX but we feel we came as close as we could on this release."No one has come close to modeling the PT6 yet, It will be interesting to see how close this one is.

nothing came close to the Realair Duke. Cant wait for this.!Try all the new twins and found myself always comming back to the duke. It just had "quality" written all over it from day one.This is "class"

Totally agree. If you look up the words "CLASS" and "QUALITY" in the dictionary the name "REALAIR" is under the description. The RealAir Duke has to be the single most used aircraft in my hanger. Well done Sean and Rob! This is going to be something special...and now I have a choice of which Duke to take into the air...that's going to be a tough decision!Rhydian

Looking forward very much to the new model!I had only had minor criticisms in the past - ie it being (on my old system) an FPS hog and the "too clean" cockpit but it sounds like they've listened to their customers :( The only reason I don't fly mine as often as I'd like is due to it's rather poor take-off and landing performance but this new version sounds virtually STOL like!For now, their SF-260 remains my favourite ever addon for FlightSim.

The only reason I don't fly mine as often as I'd like is due to it's rather poor take-off and landing performance but this new version sounds virtually STOL like!

Same here, looking forward to a lot of new destinations for the Duke !!G

Here...from the man,"So we'll of course be offering a discount to piston Duke owners but it won't be free - after a year or so of tweaking and developing.I can also confirm that take off will be extremely lively and there is lots of power in those pratt and whitney turbines....1000 feet run achievable and at least 4,000 fpm initial climb.We're close to final testing now but we don't like to anticipate release dates until we are sure things are finalised. It will be quite soon though. Thanks very much for everyone's interest"!Rob Young - RealAir

That's the stuff! It will likely be the first "new" plane I have on my new Sandy Bridge platform!Kind regards,

Would love to see RealAir do a B200 or even a C90 would make me happy. FSX desperately needs one or the other! Especially if they've nailed the PT-6, seems like the next logical step but maybe I'm biased :)Oh, I'll be upgrading to this version of the Duke too of course.

Hi Hitchhiker,We can't promise stella performance on a Dual Core but as with the piston version we will be offering a slightly lower res optional model and mipmapped textures for slow computers. There is only so much optimising that can be done, and to be fair to users who by now are in the majority with pretty fast systems, we want to take advantage of the crisp textures and modelling the previous Duke had. On my system which is by no means top notch frame rates are very good in both spot and VC, but I'm quite careful about not using too much traffic or other system hogs. The turbo prop Duke will not be any slower on frame rates than the piston version.All the best,Rob Young - RealAir

Thanks for the candid answer Rob. That is fair and I still intend to purchase this product. I also plan to build a new i7 machine at some point to take full advantage of the hi-res textures. I am glad to be supporting RealAir. With the superb take-off and landing performance of this variant, I can't wait to fly this bird in and out of airports that were previously out of bounds! Looks like other planes in my hangar will be gathering a lot of dust!

The only reason I don't fly mine as often as I'd like is due to it's rather poor take-off and landing performance

I'm not sure I understand this comment. Are you saying that the take off and landing characteristics are poor, or that you struggle to get the plane airborne at take off, and also struggle to stop it when landing? I can operate this plane very comfortably from strips only 2000 feet long :huh:As for the clean look of the existing Duke exterior and VC, that is exactly what I want! The screenshots of the Turbine Duke look great, so hopefully this "weathering" isn't too obvious...

I'm not sure I understand this comment. Are you saying that the take off and landing characteristics are poor, or that you struggle to get the plane airborne at take off, and also struggle to stop it when landing? I can operate this plane very comfortably from strips only 2000 feet long :huh:As for the clean look of the existing Duke exterior and VC, that is exactly what I want! The screenshots of the Turbine Duke look great, so hopefully this "weathering" isn't too obvious...

No struggling involved. This aircraft flies to the same numbers as the real thing (there's an IOM registered one at Oxford which I've flown). All I am saying is that the real (and RealAir) Duke is not a short-field performer so restricts the types of airfields I can fly into. I certainly wouldn't take one anywhere near a grass strip!As to weathered or not-weathered obviously it's a very personal preference. The exterior doesn't bother me. I like my cockpits to look realistic ie not brand new out of the box. I think the current Duke VC is just a little too clean to look real but as always - each to their own! The rest of the RealAir simulation is fantastic.Kudos to RealAir for producing a FlightSim add-on where the only criticism I can level is that there aren't enough scuff marks on the instrument panel;)Looking forward to the new model which I will definitely be buying.

Would the Turbine Duke be operated from grass strips (bearing in mind the impressive STOL performance)?

Would the Turbine Duke be operated from grass strips (bearing in mind the impressive STOL performance)?

I guess some brave soul may have tried. I wouldn't want to personally - have seen the results of a Baron landing on our local grass strip. It is now minus its nose-gear and has two shock-loaded engines and bent props :( That's why FSX is so much fun. We can simulate the impossible and pay the repair bills with a click of our mouse :(

Well, my simulated Turbine Duke will definitely be operating from grass strips! I notice that there is a British registered plane in the RealAir collection (G-RTDK), so I guess that's the one for me :(