Good morning all, Are there any free utilities (I'm aware of AES) that allows you to add static support vehicles such as fuel trucks, baggage carts,etc around user aircraft? Preferably, I'd like to be able to activate and de-activate these objects with a hotkey. I've searched the libraries, maybe I missed something. Thanks for any help.J.C. (MYNN)

You can place static objects with ADE (Airport Design Editor). But I´m unsure whether you can couple this with an hotkey.Check it out here: http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

You can place static objects with ADE (Airport Design Editor). But I´m unsure whether you can couple this with an hotkey.Check it out here: http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

Thanks....I recently downloaded ADE, not sure if it will achieve what I'm after though. Let's say I'm using a particular aircraft, what I'd like to do is enable ground support vehicles at a predetermined position around the aircraft at any airport (being able to make these vehicles visible or invisible via a command). I haven't really had a chance to read up on the manual for ADE, do you know offhand if this is possible with ADE? Thanks.J.C. (MYNN)

Thanks....I recently downloaded ADE, not sure if it will achieve what I'm after though. Let's say I'm using a particular aircraft, what I'd like to do is enable ground support vehicles at a predetermined position around the aircraft at any airport (being able to make these vehicles visible or invisible via a command). I haven't really had a chance to read up on the manual for ADE, do you know offhand if this is possible with ADE? Thanks.J.C. (MYNN)

I don´t think this is archievable with ADE. But you can try to add some ground object to the airports. But triggeernig by a key isn´t possible, at least as far I know.

I don't think you will find any kind of utility that allows you to do what you are after, though it maybe is "doable" as at least two designers that I know of have achieved something like it in the past. One was the now defunct Cloud9. Their KDCA Ronald Reagan airport has clusters of ground support vehicles that appear whenever an aircraft parks in certain spots. The other was a series of AI aircraft made by a fellow New Zealander way back - the series was released under the title ARNZ and he developed a technique that he called AIS that was part of the aircraft model. These actually included animated services such as cargo loading and a pushback tug along with other ground support equipment. It's a shame that neither technique was apparently adopted by anyone else (that I know of) -- if it had, we would have far more dynamic aiport scenery. CLS and a few other payware providers also give you a "menu" from which you can select a variety of ground service vehicles, and then, as you have said, there is Oliver Pabst's wonderful AES. But a user controllable utility that would allow an individual to place and control the options - I do not think you will find anything like that. Sure would be cool if there was something like that - freeware or payware! If anyone could do it, my guess is Oliver would be the one. But I doubt it will happen - except maybe for the upcoming new version...

There is a program called rwy12 (freeware) that will certainly allow you to add all sorts of static aircraft,vehicles,ships etc etc to FS9 .However whether you can display or hide with a hotkey I am not sure.I used it successfully but its quite a long winded process I seem to remember.Andy