Orbx has announced their next project for Prepar3D: Hollywood Burbank Airport (KBUR), along with a Burbank CityScene, Van Nuys and Whiteman airports (KVNY and KWHP) and several helipads.
The airport was first hinted in the 2019 Orbx roadmap and had not been heard of since then.
Burbank Airport is being developed by Matteo Veneziani, who has previously developed Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport (LIEO). The scenery will cover the entirety of the San Fernando Valley around the airport, totalling about 1400 km². The airport will be in complete PBR and will use Ultra HD textures. The ground textures will use 30cm imagery and the overall scenery will feature a 10m elevation grid mesh. Knowing the area is already hard on FPS, extra optimization steps have been taken to ensure adequate performance. According to Orbx, these techniques have previously been used in Innsbruck and Palm Springs airports. Major Points Of Interests, such as the various cinema studios, Griffith Hill Observatory, the Hollywood sign and many others will also be included in the scenery. In addition, Van Nuys and Whiteman will come in as “Lite” airports, but still feature key techniques. Burbank Airport and CityScene will be available for Prepar3D v4 and v5 and are made to integrate seamlessly with Orbx Global Base and NA Southern California.
Hollywood Burbank Airport (formerly known as Bob Hope Airport) is located in the northern part of Los Angeles, not far from many of the major film industry headquarters and shooting studios. The airport served just shy of 6 million passengers in 2019. The airport has two crossing runways (15/33 and 8/26), both of which are relatively short, measuring 6900 and 5800ft respectively. Due to noise concerns, special noise abatement procedures are in use, with aircraft taking-off runway 15 and landing runway 8. This particular layout and the overall very busy Los Angeles terminal area can make the cockpit quite busy when operating in and out of Burbank. Both Burbank and Van Nuys are some of the busiest business aviation airports in the USA by aircraft movements.
