Just Flight/Aeroplane Heaven P47D Republic Thunderbolt was released today. Very nice it is too. 🙂

Ah ok.  From the title I thought perhaps Ryanair was removing washrooms from their aircraft.

20 minutes ago, MarkW said:

Ah ok.  From the title I thought perhaps Ryanair was removing washrooms from their aircraft.

Wouldn't put that past them. 🙂

That's Mancunian humour play-on-words, i reckon, from Alan.😀

Nice screen shot Chock.

Had a bit of a chance to fly this thing around, so here's a few impressions of it.

First up, it's not too expensive at £16.99 for something which works in FSX, FSX:SE, P3D v4, P3D v3, P3D v2 and P3D v1. At 960,803 KB, it's not a massive file to download either, and comes down the pipe pretty quickly from the JF website.

This was made for JF by Aeroplane Heaven, and sometimes that can be a good thing, sometimes bad, however, I've tended to find that their stabs at military props are generally pretty nice, which is a good thing because they are currently working on an AVRO Lancaster and if their B17F/G is anything to go by, since that is excellent, this bodes well for us in them doing another four engined bomber, and we know they can do a pretty good Merlin, since their Dunkirk Spitfire 1A does a decent job of simulating that engine.

Back with the P47D though, this is no lightweight fighter like that Spitfire, with a wingspan of nearly 41 feet, the P47D was eight feet wider than a bf109 and weighed about four times as much as the German fighter it opposed, but with well over 1,000hp more than the 109, it had a comparable power to weight ratio to the little Messerschmitt. Neverthless, something like the P47 was never going to be able to turn with a 109, but it could certainly out-dive it and many other single seat, single-engined fighters of WW2, reaching speeds of up to 550mph when it did so, which led some pilots in WW2 to believe it might have been getting near Mach 1 (it wasn't, but a lot of pilots thought so at the time). So it was a great boom and zoom fighter, particularly when it gained the wider paddle-bladed Curtiss propeller, which improved its climb rate massively to a point where it could stay with German fighters in a climb, a move which Luftwaffe pilots had been able to use to evade earlier variants of the P47. It was incredibly tough too, able to take massive amounts of battle damage and keep on going, something of reassuring value to pilots with only one engine flying long escort missions over Europe, and doubtless a feature envied by pilots of the more fragile Mustangs and Spitfires with their vulnerable cooling systems and more fragile construction.

In P3D V4.3, it gets pretty good fps, certainly acceptable and it looks and sounds great, in fact when you faff around with the turbocharger, prop and mixture and get the settings just right so the engine picks up, some of the sounds it emits are just awesome. The texturing detail is really top notch too, although I think the P47D is one of those aeroplanes which you either love or hate the looks of, it's not a pretty aeroplane like the Mustang or the Spitfire etc, but it has a kind of brutal charm to it. There are plenty of paint schemes to choose from although I might have liked it more if there were a few more shiny bare metal schemes on offer, but I'm sure repainters can address that, what paint jobs you get are stunningly well done and look really realistic, among some of the best I've ever seen actually, see the exposed metal on the scuffs in the pic below for example.

Given that it can actually be quite hard to fly, since it is such a heavy aircraft with a big powerful turbocharged engine and a big propeller, the developers have included a switchable simple/complex flight model utility, one being tough to handle with things like torque rolls and such, the other being a simpler jump in a go type affair. There is also a panel with which one can change load outs to carry munitions and fuel tanks on the wing and centreline hardpoints. It also has options to remove window reflections and even has a collimated gunsight which is good for Track IR users as well as the ability to change the gunsight type and fittings or even remove it completely, so there's a lot of VC customisation going on.

Visually it can simulate firing its guns and when it does so, you get some impressive muzzle flashes as well as a trail of ejected brass casings falling away behind it. Inside, the VC is given a used but not overdone appearance and all the stuff you'd want to work does so, such as the turbocharger, prop lever, mixture lever, WEP throttle, shackle release levers light switches and so on etc. I was pleased to note that the hood sliding handle can be used properly too, allowing you to crack the canopy to varying degrees instead of it being a simple open or shut affair.

Given that the P47D is not an especially aerobatic fighter like a Spitfire or some such, one might suppose this would mean it lacks appeal, but frankly, this one is so well done in terms of sounds and things to play with, not least the excellent engine simulation and tubocharger, just flying it around and managing it properly is great fun, it truly manages to convey the feeling of being in a big powerful aeroplane which you have to be a bit wary off but which rewards skilled piloting. I think it might even be one of my new favourites for P3D, along with their B17F.

Definitely worth a look if you like to whizz around in an old warbird once in a while in your flight sim.

 

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Chock

Scuff marks on the air frame looks brilliant 😎

Nice review Alan.  I too loved the scuff marks!

So many good aircraft to choose from these days....

Mark

 

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by mtrainer
Changed Chock to Alan

I'm glad there aren't many women on this forum...................😍

Alan should be a journalist for a tabloid newspaper 😅 

The title sure was click bait....!!!!  😀

On 7/1/2018 at 2:58 PM, W2DR said:

I'm glad there aren't many women on this forum...................😍

I thought, "why?..."

Then I scrolled up and down the thread, thinking that maybe some noseart was a little risque...

...then it dawned on me..."oh!"

Hey, it's been a long day.  My brain cells are AWOL at this time.   P-47 is my favorite WW2 fighter, so, I'll be into this one soon.  Chock/alan's description is apt -- the jug is brutally elegant.  I have an old Air Force book by Martin Caidin, from the 1950's.  There is one shot (among many) in that book which sticks in my mind -- a picture of a P-47 flying over a seabee, or air marshaller, in the Pacific -- and the airplane is just a few feet over his head.  It's an amazing photograph that really captures the power (and size) of the Jug, not to mention the non-plussed attitude of the guy on the ground.

@Chock thanks for your review and pics!  That weather and wear looks excellent!