So...would it have been very difficult and added much cost to include a static cockpit view in these planes?

No, its not a full VC but at least you would feel a bit more immersed in flying the plane.

I tried the trick of moving the viewpoint back to simulate the cockpit on the P-51.

You can see static gauges etc. with this view so obviously some work was done on creating a cockpit.

Seems like it would be fairly easy to implement.

 

Maybe some of the aircraft designers who patrol these forums could address this.

 

 

Just a thought,

 

-ed

The faux cockpit is there simply so that exterior views aren't looking into a black hole. It wasn't preliminary work on building a useable cockpit.

 

Not that I wouldn't like to see some useful instruments added, mind you, whether through a 2D panel (almost certainly not going to happen), a strip of floating gauges at the bottom (not likely, either) or a modular HUD to let us add and remove things we want (more likely, but still, I'm not expecting to see it).

IMHO a false cockpit would just increase the wish for a real one. Moreover warbirds are not the simplest planes to implement a cockpit for. They were the most complex planes of their era with big, powerful engines to take care of, and most cockpit were designed with maintenance and combat in mind, not "sleek design". That means a complex cockpit full of levers and gauges, especially late models (moreover the standard six-pack design was yet to come) A trainer, even a modern one, has a much simpler cockpit. The Smithsonian published a couple of excellent books showing warbirds "from the inside" (i,e, http://www.smithsonianstore.com/clearance/books-media/in-the-cockpit-ii-10395.html), they are an interesting reading showing the difference with modern planes.

I understand why MS has decided to include them to get the attention of those looking for "aggressive" military planes instead of the pacific civil ones, but they are also complex models to implement fully. And without the proper gauges the engine simulation has to be simplified too - those large, powerful engines uusally required some care in their handling, especially at startup and lower speeds.