Do we all fly the same aircraft?

Go to the FSPilotshop, Simmarket, or perhaps the AVSIM store, and what you see is a large selection of aircraft add-ons. That’s nice, but there is one problem - instead of having a very wide range of aircraft, you keep seeing the same aircraft time and time again. There are a lot of aircraft out there, and I think it’s a pity we don’t see that to the same extent in our hobby. Let’s be honest, what do we see most of the time? Boeing, Airbus, Airbus, Boeing, Airbus and Boeing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Boeing aircraft (Airbus not so much, honestly). It’s just that we are reaching a point where you start to think  “Oh, another one?” If we include freeware, it becomes worse. Take the Boeing 757: POSKY, Captain Sim, Level-D en Qualitywings all have their 757. It’s not like there are different versions, too, it’s just four times the same aircraft in various levels of detail. Sure, two are for FS2004, the other for FSX, and in that light, it isn’t that bad of course. What I propose though, is to look at what models aren’t there abundantly already. So, instead of thinking “let’s do better”, it might be worth thinking “let’s do something new”, or at least do an aircraft of which the last version is FS2002 quality and age. The Boeing 707 is an example of that. For as far as I know, the only payware (and thus, with VC) Boeing 707 currently around is the Captain Sim offering. I love that aircraft (in real life and the model), and so I’m disappointed no attention is paid to it anymore. You see a lot of 727s, 737s, but no 707s.

The reason for all of this is absolutely clear: companies make what people want. This is entirely understandable, specifically in a delicate business as Flight Simulator add-ons, where the market is small and companies are fragile. Still, I’ll applaud any company that decides to go out there and develop a model not done at all, or done badly. PMDG did this when they decided to make a J41, and I applaud that. I think it’s good the selection of twin-engine turboprop aircraft just got bigger.

This is just my two cents of course, but I’m still waiting for the moment when a new Boeing 707 comes round, or perhaps a nice Boeing 717. In the lesser known part of the aviation industry, we have also some aircraft that have never seen the payware light of day that I think really deserve a spot in the FS sky: Tupolev, Antonov, Ilyushin and Yakolev. Of these, for all I know, only Yakolev (by Supronov design) and Tupolev (an old Ariane model) are featured by payware aircraft. This is a great pity, because Russian aircraft are unique in many ways, and I’d like to see more of them.

So there you have it. There really is no good excuse to make a Boeing 737, when you can contribute to the FSDiversity by making a good Ilyushin plane. Companies remain bound to their customers, though, and I think customers are partly to be blamed. We cry, they soothe, that’s just the way it is, and it won’t change anytime soon, I fear. I’ll just have to fly with the stuff I have, and I can only hope sometime in the future we will see more legacy planes, even if they are Boeing (Like the B707) or Airbus (like the A300/A310).

By Benjamin van Soldt

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