I hope this is the right place for this request...I know this is a bit unusual.I would like to know if it's possible for someone to do a one-off ATR 72-500 with 5 blade counter rotating props. The aircraft, known as the ATR 72-750, would be used by our virtual airline to offer flights over less dense routes at or very near regional jet speeds and to operate from the very hot conditions found in California during the summers off of very short runways. Other possilities would be the Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8 Q400 (possibly to be named the Dash 8 Q500?) or SAAB 2000 (SAAB 2004?).If anyone is interested please e-mail me your intentions.Sarah McKay The California GroupManagers of Golden West (Virtual) Airwayshttp://home.earthlink.net/~goldenwestairways/

Well, give me more info... The SAAB 2k gmax file is on my desktop, and once production is done, I might be able to do what you are requesting. I can also do it for the EMB120 Brasilia when it is done...

John,The idea I have is for a twin turboprop such as the SAAB 2000 with counter rotating 5 or 6 bladed curved blade props like are on the Ilyushin Il-114. The aircraft wouldn't necessarily have any fuselage changes but the vertical stabilizer may have to be changed for the increase in speed, which would be very close to jet aircraft speeds. Winglets would be a great addition to delay stall and air spilling over the wingtips at the higher operating speeds.The props would also allow for a higher MTOW and shorter field performance, especially in hotter, higher operations. The Embraer EMB120 would be acceptable as well but the fuselage would be stretched to hold 50 passengers.Please e-mail me your intentions, I would love to see the aircraft done in any livery, especially that of GWA. Sarah McKayThe California GroupManagers of Golden West (Virtual) Airwayshttp://home.earthlink.net/~goldenwestairways/

Sarah,Are you aware that Flight1 is close to releasing their ATR 72-500 and might this aircraft fit your needs? They even have a promo video to download at http://www.flight1software.com/ATR/ATR_Promo_New.zip so you can see some of the eye candy and several liveries that they'll include.John

John,No I wasn't, but it looks nice. The problem we have is two-fold, we need something frame rate friendly for guys with older computers, and we will only have about 10MB total space for the airlines website when we first open, but will go up to over 50MB within a few weeks if the VA launches well. With the aircraft we are considering that's cutting it close. The more I think about the project the more I like the SAAB idea. I wish I had learned Gmax when I had the chance, to me it seems like an easy project to just stick another set of props on a Gmax model rotating opposite of the original props, but then again...I don't know anything about Gmax. We have been playing with the ARNZ ATR's and they work well within the scope of the airline, we may just use all turboprops since we're having difficulty with even getting the jets done properly. Things were so much easier in the good 'ol AF99 and FS98 days...Sarah