This idea just hit me this morning, I like to fly modern and also classic. It would be cool if you could select from say 5 different decades of flying. For instance if you select 1930's only airfields of the time would be displayed in the world. You could do mail runs trying to find your destination by dead reckoning. Then if you select the 1950's the world would be filled with DC-6's and Lockheed Constellations. If you select the late 1960's there could be a lot of haze in the air from all the hippies smoking. Well, you get the idea, wouldn't this be cool!

Apart from the time and cost involved in designing 5 airports - one for each decade - instead of one, where is Microsoft going to get the data from? For instance, London's pre-war airport was at Cropdon which no longer exists. It has been built on.

I’ll fantasize with you! :( That would be cool! Pan Am’s terminal at Dinner Key would returnin the 30’s & 40s…as would the Clippers! How about the nav aids changing!? – Celestial in the 20’s, Lighted Airwaybeacons and Four course radio range in the 30’s, followed by NDBs. VORs in the 40’s… Six locations will have an ILS in 1941 ! You can get a GCA approach into Berlin in 1948-49. DME/TACANs start to show up in the 50’s. Airborne LORAN A receivers beginsto show up in the 60’s – with automated LORAN C sets in the 70’s. Microwave landing systems (MLS) were developedin the 1980s. GPS for general aviation shouldn’t be available until the 90’s. And how about era specific ATC !? :)

Can we maybe get one version as best as possible before worrying about other decades?

I think the Microsoft should be concentrating on errors not era's! :LMAO:Regards, Mike Mann

I don't see them doing it for the whole world, but they could do some missions with period scenery loaded for small areas.

Never mind the hard-nosed immagination-challenged posters (we know who you are), I have thought about this myself and I really like your idea!It's actually fairly easy to implement (hard-nosed posters, take note!) if you are willing to sacrifice accuracy: Switch autogen airport building texture files as appropriate! Well, it's a start anyway.Further, airports could easily be located under directories that contain year ranges spanning the life of the airport so that the appropriate airport gets loaded according to the date of the fligt. In fact you can extend this very concept to specific airport buildings (an even to RWYs and TWYs (but that would be more complicated.)As for developpers (do take note!) now you can sell the same airport many times voer, so you have more moeny to make.Sure, landing at Casablanca of yesteryear in a DC-3 and head for a drink at Rick's Café would be a blast!Cheers,- jahman.

Never mind the hard-nosed immagination-challenged posters (we know who you are), I have thought about this myself and I really like your idea!It's actually fairly easy to implement (hard-nosed posters, take note!) if you are willing to sacrifice accuracy: Switch autogen airport building texture files as appropriate! Well, it's a start anyway.Further, airports could easily be located under directories that contain year ranges spanning the life of the airport so that the appropriate airport gets loaded according to the date of the fligt. In fact you can extend this very concept to specific airport buildings (an even to RWYs and TWYs (but that would be more complicated.)As for developpers (do take note!) now you can sell the same airport many times voer, so you have more moeny to make.Sure, landing at Casablanca of yesteryear in a DC-3 and head for a drink at Rick's Café would be a blast!Cheers,- jahman.

That's the spirit, Thanks! I wasn't suggesting every airport be perfect for every era, but selectable AI would be cool and they could get urban info pretty easily for different landclass bounderies by era. I don't expect this to actually be put in Flight, just thought it was a neat idea!

That's the spirit, Thanks! I wasn't suggesting every airport be perfect for every era, but selectable AI would be cool and they could get urban info pretty easily for different landclass bounderies by era. I don't expect this to actually be put in Flight, just thought it was a neat idea!

I could be wrong but I seem to remember Mytraffic did this with airline traffic-e.g. you could specify a specific era and the ai traffic would revert to planes of that time. I think your idea is cool.

The features asked for - vintage airports, aircraft, and AI - could all be prvided by 3rd Party Developers. The fact that they're not suggests that there is no significant demand for them. Why, then, should Microsoft waste its limited development budget providing them?

MGH...+1Just give me something that works really well in the world we live in, and I'll be quite happy. In my opinion, that is where the current effort should be centered for the first release, not something that ends up being mediocre because of it's dilution to every conceivable wish in the world.That being said, I will show my two-faced nature by stating that I sure did like all those little cars with headlights and taillights buzzing around on the Interstates as I made approaches to major airports. That added a touch of reality and class that was pretty neat.Bob

I could be wrong but I seem to remember Mytraffic did this with airline traffic-e.g. you could specify a specific era and the ai traffic would revert to planes of that time. I think your idea is cool.

Actually, there have been efforts made for FS9 that feature "era specific airports, aircraft, etc." for several years now...http://www.calclassic.com/

This is such a great idea, however unpractical at the moment. With FSX I just use my imagination while flying older aircraft that the simulated world is of the same era, the illusion falls apart when I fly too close to a large population center of course.