Since FSX is a civil oriented flight simulator I wonder why buy (or develop) a military plane ? I mean you can't shot other planes down or bomb targets in FSX. So how do you fly them in FSX ? Do you fly them as ordinary GA plane like take off at one airport and land at another ? Or do you fly for example a bomber from England to over Germany and then return to the same airport in order to simulate what the plane did for real ?

What do the military plane in FSX offer you that you don't get with a civil plane ? Why didn't you spend your money on a more dedicated combat flight simulator if your are interested in flying military planes ?

http://www.captainsim.com/products/w001/

Actually, you can get add-ons that allow you to shoot things in FSX, and there are others on this forum that know much, much more about that than I do.

 

I have purchased several payware military airplanes because they're fun to fly, and have capabilities, performance, or characteristics that GA airplanes or tubeliners don't. Civil airplanes don't climb at 10,000 fpm, nor do they fly low-level at 450 KIAS. There aren't any civil jets with centerline thrust or seating. The world's most ubiquitous helicopter--the Bell UH-1 and its derivatives--is a military aircraft. Same for the Boeing 707 and it's descendants.

 

And my short post only scratches the surface....

The OP smells quite suspiciously of a troll, but I'll bite. The main reason I buy A2A military planes is to fly these incredible aircraft with as much simulated realism as possible. It's possible that DCS allows one to fly the A10 or P51 with an equal level of realism, but no other sim out there does. Now, I don't buy WWI aircraft for FSX, since I have ROF, and nothing in FSX comes close to the realism of the models in ROF. I don't have to shoot things to enjoy flying a plane. The simulation of all the systems in the P40, for instance, or the B17, is quite enjoyable in itself.

For me it's about the systems and speed. And to be honest most of the world's air forces don't fire anything either. There have been American carrier group deployments that never fire a single shot. Going to a modern fighter jet when you usually putz around at 150 knots is quite the experience. And again the systems simulation. Learn and fly say a carenado or realiar ga aircraft, and then go fly and learn the vrs superbug. There's no comparison.

First add-on I ever purchased was the A2A P-51H (for FS9 but works well in FSX). This was for the MS Round the World Race. Many similar purchases for the RTWR as military planes make great race planes... fast and stout. One freeware plane that we used during one race was the Saab 29 Tunnan.

 

One "specialty event" at SOH, I flew the A2A B-17 Accusim to various airports in the South Pacific. I was able to find an Ozx repaint by Jan Kees... the Suzy-Q which actually participated in WWII at / near some of the airports we flew to. I was even able to find (on ebay) the LIFE Magazine (18 Jan, 1943) that contained an excellent article about the Suzy-Q. Fascinating history. Radioman would pipe WWII era music over the intercom... Btw... try landing that plane (the A2A B-17) on a 3000' strip and hear one of the crew say, "nice landing Captain!"... "it ain't easy".

 

I have had a blast flying the Capt Sim C-130 to Antarctica, on water and even landing on the FSX carrier (lightly loaded). Capt Sim B-52 another fun one to fly for low level flights at near Mach 1.

 

How about flying a Spitfire over England (RealAir or A2A) and soaking up the sound of that Merlin engine...

 

Carrier Traps with any military plane with a Hook... the A2A Corsair... VRS Superbug... Virtavia Scimitar... Want a real challenge? Be able to consistently land on a carrier w/o balling it up.

 

Flying the Vulcan to as high and far as it will go... then making a very steep descent from +50,000' then deploying the chute on roll-out... Or the Wilco Harrier... it can get into and out of any airport (or non-airport for that matter) and cruise near M1.

 

Besides all that... the skills you can gain managing different types and systems... military aircraft are known for their beautiful lines (and many for their liveries) which make excellent subjects for screenshots.

 

What do they offer? A whole 'nuther world of fun flying that you can't get with so many civilian planes.

 

Flying a military type does not mean you have to use it in a combat role to enjoy flying it or the challenge it can provide. Just try and land the MilViz T-38 successfully on your first attempt.

Awesome post Ozzie

There are several very good reasons:

 

i) There are many famous and iconic military aircraft that I would like the chance to fly in the sim purely out of a historical interest and wishing to learn about them.

 

ii) Their performance and flying characteristics can offer a new challenge that doesn't exist in the civil aviation world - for example nailing the perfect landing in a T-38, mastering takeoff and landing a 2,000HP tail dragger WW2 fighter, getting to grips with an accurately modelled WW2 era liquid cooled in line engine, or landing on an aircraft carrier.

 

iii) Their performance opens up new opportunities - for example taking off in a Lightning F6 and making a zoom climb to 80,000ft or taking an F-15 down the Grand Canyon at 450kts.

 

However, the most important reason for me is simple - they're just another type of aircraft that can be flown in the sim and have fun with...

 

And in that respect they are just as valuable and worthwhile as the type of aircraft that fly along a magenta line on autopilot at FL300 or the 120HP piston that putt putts around at 100kts at 1,500ft.

With all of my military aircraft, I always simulate bombing missions over Sweden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single player war in FSX is not too exciting yet, but in the near future it will be better.

VRS's TacPac allows you to shoot planes and bomb targets. Future release of another free add-on called FSX@War promises to add many more ground vehicles and the ability to set up war scenarios complete with persistent damage.

Shooting carrier landings with the VRS SuperBug is tons o' fun when coupled with the free carrier addons, steam catapult mods, vLSO to score you, etc.

Even with Acceleration and without purchasing VRS software, the F-18 can be tweaked to be pretty good for carrier ops. And Dino's T-45 is extremely well done, and free.

I love and loved flying these beasts even only to do these videos.

 

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

A lot of the military planes I buy are fast. I like to go fast

 

I fly them as general aviation category. A2a's P51 civilian is a great example. Machine of war flown with IFR instruments. Very fast.

One reason that people fly military planes in FSX is because in real life they're both rare and expensive, and are out of the reach of most all of us. There are people who own and fly real life vintage WW2 combat aircraft, and they're certainly not using them for combat. If you can figure out why they do it, then you can figure out why people n FSX do it.

 

Hook

It boils down to a few things for me. First of all, they're a lot faster, more agile than a tubeliner, and a lot less labor intensive. I mean, flying a realistic airliner is cool, but I get bored of just flipping switches and reading a ten page startup checklist. I play FSX to fly, not to sift through what switches do. Some people like that, and I completely respect their way of enjoying the game... it just happens to be different than mine. I prefer strapping on a very powerful jet and flying around and practicing things like carrier landings or even weapons systems (such as with the VRS TacPack).

 

In my opinion, they're more versatile than the standard GA aircraft or airliner. They can do pretty much anything an airliner or GA aircraft can do (with some obvious exceptions) and immediately switch over to military-mode, break the sound barrier and land on a carrier in choppy seas.

For me it's mainly the speed that makes me fly fighters every now and then. I don't bother that I can't shoot anything, because I probably wouldn't, anywas, it's just fun to fly at very high speeds, for exampe try to catch up with an AI plane and escort it a while, try to land on a carrier, ... such things.

Also I buy them, because some fighters are really exceptional regarding either the performance (e.g. the Harrier or he F-35) or the design (the A10 Warthog, I just love that one!).

 

Flo