Douglas DC-8

The Douglas DC-8 was one of the aircraft that brought long distance air travel to the masses. It made transatlantic air travel possible for a much larger group of people, thus making the world a much smaller place. Commercially it was successful up to 1972 when wide-bodied aircraft like the B747 took over its place. There were many variants and once in a blue moon you still see the 'Old Smokey' carry cargo. 'Old Smokey' was just one of the many nicknames the aircraft was given by pilots who loved flying them - 'DC Late', 'Greasy 8', 'Death Cruiser', 'Whiney Bird' and 'Cigarette Jet' were others.

This add-on brings a version to your virtual hangar that not only looks and sounds good, but also offers a good system depth. Every real pilot will enjoy navigating by VOR and NDB and manually managing the four finicky power plants. It is hard work but the DC-8 will reward you with great handling.

It’s time to forget about MCDU, FMS and FADEC and go back to real flying, complete with instruments with needles and a sturdy but steady hand on the throttles and stick.

• Simulation of a 50 series DC-8 passenger airliner with a focus on normal procedures
• 3D model of the exterior with animated flight surfaces, reversers, landing gear, four exits and two cargo doors
• Virtual cockpit model with detailed simulation of instruments and controls at the pilot’s, first officer’s, and flight engineer’s positions
• In-depth simulation of more than 10 aircraft systems
• Visual rain effects on cockpit windows using TrueGlass technology by TFDi
• P3D V4 version includes dynamic landing, taxi, and ground floodlights that illuminate objects
• Cockpit lighting including main panel, pedestal, and engineer’s panel floodlights, dome light, panel back lighting, and instrument gauge lighting
• Instrument gauge lighting has four selectable levels of intensity
• Engine and other sounds by Turbine Sound Studios, including start-up external air cart sound
• Radar display showing terrain with three ranges selectable
• Loader utility to add and remove passengers, cargo and fuel
• Detailed engine simulation with accurate EPR readings to set power for take-off, climb and cruise
• Detailed performance tables to determine V speeds, power settings, take-off trim, manoeuvre and stall speeds, and more
• Custom icing code will cause airframe ice accumulation to increase drag and degrade lift while de-icing will gradually remove effects of ice
• INS waypoints may be manually inserted, or simply by loading a standard FSX flight plan
• INS simulation is very detailed with random drift, DME updating, realistic or fast alignment and more
• A cold and dark state is available at any time using the pop-up loader utility