Whilst hype for DC Designs’ Concorde has started to settle down following its release (and the latest update), FlightSimLabs is trickling out little tidbits of information over on their forums. Details are still fairly light, Andrew Wilson from Flight Sim Labs has been teasing things ahead of a much grander showcase in the near future.
Firstly, a new forum area has opened up within the Flight Sim Labs forum, dedicated to the new Concorde coming from the team. There are a few forum topics, including a welcome message from Andrew Wilson. He says that when there is development news, we will find out about it there.
However, there are some juicy new details in another thread that was started by community member, Will F.
The first interesting topic of conversation in the thread was about the price point of other products compared to what is expected from FlightSimLabs for their own Concorde. Although no pricing details were shared, Andrew said, “For what you’re going to get in the FSL version, it makes the ‘other’ one look expensive.” He also commented on DC Designs with their work and the interest it will bring to the aircraft type. “We are anticipating the DC Designs title to [complement] our work in the market. We’ve seen this with our Airbus series – these ‘more accessible’ titles attract new customers into the community and a subset will then seek out more complexity and immersion. I welcome any interest they can generate for Concorde and wish them success with their release.”
Throughout the forum thread, various discussion points were made about some of the features to be included with FlightSimLabs’ Concorde.
In terms of getting the aircraft to behave as close to the real thing as possible, Andrew shared a quick example from an engineering test flight. In the example, he shared that the current calculated supersonic profile is 56,856ft. Compared to what was shown in the simulator, Concorde was showing 56,860ft – just a 4ft difference.
With Concorde being an especially complex aircraft, Andrew said that there are plenty of tools and features going into the plane to help. From a detailed user manual and tutorials to the introduction of a virtual crew system. You will also be given a flight briefing about the route that will help you calculate weight, supersonic speeds and altitudes.
Andrew says that “it is very challenging to fly it without some aid, especially on the lightweight charters where everything happens significantly more quickly.” He went on, “We’ve got a really good system in place now that makes the whole experience very easy to manage and adds an extra layer of immersion and authenticity. There is going to be a significant amount of re-learning required – a high-weight departure takes a great deal of care and precision to fly correctly. With Heathrow on the easterlies last week we spent some time testing 09R departures – you really need to follow the correct pitch/bank attitudes to get the aircraft through the right turn. Any excess in pitch or bank will see your airspeed decaying rapidly. The same goes for a Canarsie climb – it’s an intense 90 seconds to get the aircraft out of Jamaica Bay and clearing the height restrictions. Concorde-X, among other titles, was more forgiving. This one isn’t.”
There will still be some time to go before we see anything a bit more concrete as Andrew says, “We still have some work to do before we are ready to show off some details.”
We’re hoping to see more in the near future and once we do, we’ll be sure to share it with you.
