Good 747 classic in the near future?

[Guest]

As you can probably tell based on my profile picture, I am a Pan Am lover. I love all the classic aircraft Pan Am has flown but in the simulator world, there are no detailed and advanced addons for Pan Am's fleet through the jet age besides FlyJSim's 727 for X-Plane or maybe the Milviz 737-200. But I only have P3D and FSX and I have no real need for an entirely different simulator so really, I have next to no options to fly the same type of airframes in flight sim as my grandfather did in real life. (Of course there is CLS, Captain Sim, and Just Flight but those are intermediate to beginner grade sims) he used to captain the 707, 727, 747, and A310.  All those airplanes I love dearly but the 747 was the jewel of the fleet and it would be amazing to see a 747 classic done for P3D or FSX. But I realize there are a few reasons developers may not even want to work on a high quality 747 Classic, a few reasons could be many PC Pilots have grown used to the glass cockpits or maybe the learning curve would be just too great, and access to these old queens is very limited with only a few in operation that I know of that work nonstop. And even commercial simulators are sort of rare and expensive. But then again, a study level Concorde was done so there is still a chance we could see a successful 747 Classic.

But still, I am more than happy with my new 747-400 and she's almost the only bird I fly but I've been thinking of how great it would be to have a 747 classic for as long as I was on flight simulator. 

Now I know that in the top paragraph some of my reasons for why devs would not make a 747 Classic are likely far from accurate but I think my point has been made of how difficult it could be to actually sell something like this. But aside from that, thanks for reading and let me know if there is any possibility of seeing this happen in the next few years or so.

[Chock 17,769]

I guess it's not beyond the realms of possibility, after all, plenty of developers have made 737 classics and such and there are even more of those on the way.

But as you say, for the 747-100/200 and 300, we are kind of stuck with the CLS one at the moment, which did at least get tarted up a bit a while back from a graphics standpoint. To be fair, the fact that it doesn't have a fully functional engineer's panel should not really affect one's ability to take on the role of piloting it, since if you were in the left hand seat, you'd not be working that Flight Engineer panel yourself anyway.

[ErichB 3,638]

The problem with the older classics is that they are unlikely to be realistic simulations. In this case, it's a three crew aircraft and you're one (untrained) pilot.   These projects are also unlikely to make much commercial sense for a developer.  The simulation crowd has to a large extent  moved beyond accepting 'plausible' versions of anything.  I think the community has become much more demanding of hi-fidelity simulations over the past number of years.  So unless someone sets out to do an amazing job of a mammoth project like a 747 classic with cockpit sharing functionality, it is unlikely to happen.  There also seems to be a trend of people wanting to fly current/contemporary versions of mainstream aircraft, so they tend to buy what they see at airports.

[Chock 17,769]

What would make a Classic three-crew cockpit feasible in the sim, is if A2A had a crack at it along the lines of what they did with their Captain of the Ship-style add-ons such as their Stratocruiser, where you basically have an AI crew who you can interact with. To some extent you can do a bit of that with things like FS2Crew and MCE, but it would really need a dedicated stab at doing it really properly to interest a lot of simmers. With 747s rapidly being retired, there may be a nostalgia wave to prompt something like that, but a developer would have to be certain that they were gonna sell a bucketload of them to make it worth the development investment of time and money. Some aircraft are a no brainer for that, i.e. A2A's B17G Flying Fortress. Everyone knew that would sell like hot cakes because I don't know anyone who doesn't have an absolute love affair with the Flying Fortress. It's the same story with a few other classics, but I don't think the 747 is quite yet in the rose-tinted nostalgia bracket yet, since there are many still operational.

[Camsdad13 64]

an update of the RFP 747 classic would solve this. 

As far as 3 man cockpits lacking reality, if you go that far then our current 2 man cockpits fit that same scenario. I don't ever recall seeing 1 pilot on the flight deck on a 78,77,76,75,73 or an A3. I fly twice a week too. 

 

I think the hobby has retracted with great panel designers we once had. Especially gauge designers. So many panels don't go beyond FS9 because of gauge issues in FSX and P3d.

[ErichB 3,638]

25 minutes ago, Camsdad13 said:

As far as 3 man cockpits lacking reality, if you go that far then our current 2 man cockpits fit that same scenario. I don't ever recall seeing 1 pilot on the flight deck on a 78,77,76,75,73 or an A3. I fly twice a week too. 

A bit of an apples and pears comparison there.  

The relatively high degree of avionics automation on a 777 or 747-400 and newer contemporaries makes flying the aircraft on your own quite possible and practical - you have a high degree of navigational awareness with various displays including engine and navigational data at your finger tips.  It is a world apart from the 747-100/200/300 series which had an engineers panel and a total reliance on that individual for navigational and engine performance data.  It was comparitively archaic.  It's just not a practical way to operate a sim unless they did a very advanced version of an A2A flight engineer.  

To be honest, I just can't see that happening.  It would be extremely niche and have questionable profit margin for an extraordinary amount of development time and resource.  

 

[Camsdad13 64]

Apples to Apples all the aircraft I mentioned are certified to be flown with two crew members. This is a video game. The reality factor is up to each individual.  You left out the engineer being responsible for making coffee and heating the food on cargo flights too 😂

I'm for a 747 classic with engineers panel. A DC-8 and 727 panel with engineers panel too. 

[ErichB 3,638]

8 minutes ago, Camsdad13 said:

all the aircraft I mentioned are certified to be flown with two crew members. 

 

Im refering to realism in terms of practicality (for the average user) -  not the regulatory requirements.

 

I hear what you are saying though. 

[Johan_Dees 84]

I dont see why a developper doesnt want to do it. CS made a 707 and L1011 for a 3 man cockpit.

If they just could make classic 747 it will be an instant buy.

I guess simmers eventually try more demanding planes after the initial oh and ah with the fmc, what tends to get

boring fast imho.

[edetroit 933]

It is the high workload of the Classics that appeal to me. Huge fan of the engineers panel. 

[Captain Kevin 586]

6 hours ago, Johan_Dees said:

I guess simmers eventually try more demanding planes after the initial oh and ah with the fmc, what tends to get boring fast imho.

I guess that also depends on why you fly and how much time you have to fly. I've flown the Boeing 747-200B in the past, Project Opensky merged with the Ready For Pushback panel. When you have to monitor each and every system, that can take quite a bit of time, and whilst I used to have that kind of time available, I no longer have that kind of time available to sit there and monitor systems. With the Boeing 747-400, I can either increase the simulation rate and/or leave it for a bit whilst I go do what I need to do.