The default Boeing 747-400 has received major enhancements thanks to a team under the name ‘mSparks’ with the release of version 1.0 of their freeware upgrade project.
The default Boeing 747 leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to systems, 3D modelling and sounds. There have been a number of projects that have endeavoured to improve the Queen of the Skies just as Zibo has improved the default 737 with great success. With the release of their first round of improvements to the Boeing 747, it is looking like we will finally start to see the progression in the right direction for the default aircraft.
The original project started with Yes Aviation who started improving the original systems in the aircraft back in early 2019. Over the past 18 months, there have been lots of contributions from lots of developers, one of which, mSparks – a Health Economist from the UK currently living in Serbia, with a passion for coding and real-world helicopter flying – pushing the development forward. mSparks is also the developer behind AutoATC.
After heavy politics, the project was handed over to mSparks who continued to make further changes to the aircraft with help from multiple developers by way of an open-source project.
The current release sees the original aircraft being enhanced with improvements being made to the Flight Management Systems, implementation of hydraulics systems, an overhaul of VNAV, Autoland and thrust management systems. The team have also made numerous tweaks and fixes to the aircraft to include fuel, engines and autopilot as well as CRT displays and how waypoints are shown on the navigation display.
Development of the enhancements utilises LUA scripts, a plugin-based platform that implements the aircraft systems away from the core X-Plane programme. This enables the team to develop systems to a much better level of detail whilst in balance with performance.
You can download and install the complete aircraft along with the enhancements from the development’s GitHub. As the development is ongoing, you can keep up to any changes through the ‘Go Ahead‘ discord. Alternatively, if you would like to contribute to the project, you can reach out to mSparks through the discord as well.
Changelog
- fuel fixes
- font, image and texture overhaul
- Fuel Weights & ND Waypoint Display Tweaks
- Speed tapes
- CRT display selectors
- Global Supertanker support
- VNAV overhaul to 747-400 specification
- Electrical Synoptic
- Fuel Units – Selectable by LSK
- Thrust references
- Hydraulic synoptic
- Split rudder
- VR move commands
- Custom parking brake command
- Chocks
- CRT selector implementation
- autolatch flap handle
- Autoland
- Fixed VR manipulators
- ground handling on FMC
- TOGA implimentation
- updated lighting
- ILS tuning and autotune
- new TOD implimentation
- engine sound banks
- bug fixes to fuel, engines and autopilot
- Numerous CAS and FMC messages
- speed and altitude knob depress functionality
- engine vibration
- IRS simulation
- blackened displays when IRS not aligned
- Nav radio autotuning
- fix fire test button
- Thrust limiting
- fixed landing gear through floor
- xlua depreciated for XTLua
- 3 indpendant FMS objects
- custom FMS
- fix autobrake animating parking brake
- brake source light
- flight envelope protection
- Added sounds from https://k-akai.blogspot.com/ (with permission)
- voice commands
- engine 4 fuel consumption fixed
- fixed FMS buttons
- green screen CDUs
- Hydraulic system simulation