Vickers Viscount: Legends of Flight for FSX

The combination of specular maps, bump maps and multiple viewpoints, grant realistic lighting and allow you to have a wonderful visual experience whether you're admiring the more attractive, stretched fuselage from the -800 series, or sitting comfortably in the highly functional and accurate Virtual Cockpit, staring out of the large panoramic windows. Within the cockpit, shadow textures are used where you would expect and every knob, switch and lever is animated, most of them with bespoke animations that add a great deal of character to this aircraft. This holds true for both the Pilot and the Co-pilot/Engineer stations.

Dedicated flight dynamics pave the way for an authentic feel to the aircraft both on the ground and in the air. While the many subtle animations including rotating wheels, operating passenger and cargo doors, pitch controlled propellers and even animated crew visible through the windscreen all come together fluidly to create a rich atmosphere for you to sink in to. On top of that, the impressive high-fidelity sound does a good job of emulating the distinctive Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines and offers a significant boost to your immersive endeavors.

You can choose to fly any of 12 frame-rate friendly, super-high resolution liveries, including authentic international airlines and military liveries ranging from the 1959 KLM 'Royal Flying Dutchman' to British Air Ferries in 1981. The passenger boarding steps and ground crew vehicles have all been independently customised for each airline so you get the complete experience, whatever you wish to fly. You can be pretty sure that there is something in this add-on to suit your taste and if not, a layered, tiled paint-kit is also included, for those of you who like to make your own custom repaints and liveries. 

Manufacturers Description

The Vickers Viscount was a major success in Britain's aviation industry, being the right aircraft at the right time. Viscounts were registered in over 70 countries; 445 aircraft were built and used in service around the world.

Viscount - Legends of Flight features the -800 series of the marque, with the longer and more elegant fuselage, and takes you back to the heady days of classic aviation with 12 liveries, many of which have long disappeared from the skies.

Designed and built exclusively for Flight Simulator X, Viscount - Legends of Flight features an authentic Virtual Cockpit which is shadow textured as appropriate. All switches, knobs and levers are animated, most with bespoke animations, and the Co-pilot/Engineer station has functional gauges, knobs, levers and switches.

General features

• Dedicated FSX design
• Highly detailed exterior model
• Twelve highly-detailed super-resolution liveries
• Accurate animations
• High-fidelity sound set showcasing the distinctive Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines
• Comprehensive manual (a German manual is also available to download from the Support section)

Model

• Highly detailed stretch fuselage -800 series
• Operating passenger and cargo doors
• Fully flyable virtual cockpit
• Specular map to give realistic light effect on aircraft
• A great set of bump maps to give a more realistic 3D feeling to the livery sets
• Multiple viewpoints
• Passenger boarding steps and ground crew vehicle customised for each airline
• Stewardess figure in doorway
• Fully detailed interior model complete with passenger section

Liveries

Twelve authentic international airline and military liveries in super-high resolution:

• BEA (British European Airways) - Red Square livery, 1960s
• Aer Lingus - 1966
• Air Canada - 1974
• British Air Ferries - 1981
• British Midland - 1986
• Cambrian Airways - 1970s
• Continental Airlines - 1959
• KLM 'Royal Flying Dutchman' -1959
• Lufthansa - 1968
• RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) -  1965
• Trans Australia Airways - 1960
• Intra Airways 1979 (Ex-British Airways)

A layered, tiled paintkit is supplied so you can create your own liveries (suitable additional paint program such as Photoshop required).

Flight Dynamics

• Dedicated FSX custom flight dynamics
• Checklists and Reference files are provided.

Panel and Virtual Cockpit features

• Highly functional and accurate VC, shadow textured as appropriate.
• All switches, knobs and levers animated, most with bespoke animations.
• Co-pilot/Engineer station with fully functional gauges, knobs, levers and switches

Animations

• Cargo and passenger doors
• Propellers with pitch control
• Rotating wheels
• Undercarriage
• Nose wheel steering.
• Animated crew visible through windscreen
• Detailed animations such as windscreen wipers and wheel shock absorbers
• Fully animated control surfaces: flaps, rudder, elevators and ailerons

Special effects

• Touchdown tyre smoke effects

Texture artwork

• Highly detailed texture mapping which doesn't compromise frame rates
• FSX DX10 preview compatible
• Bump mapping
• Specular maps
• Night maps

Full Lighting

• Red anti-collision beacon
• Coloured wing tip and tail Navigation lights
• Cockpit light
• Passenger windows lighting
• Landing lights that illuminate the runway

Recommended Requirements

• Flight Simulator X (Acceleration, SP2 and Direct X 10 preview compatible)
• 3.0GHz PC or any Dual Core 
• 1.0GB RAM
• 256Mb 3D graphics card
• Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP
• 800MB hard drive space

Reviews

JF have produced quite a highly detailed stretch fuselage with nice smooth lines and reflections due to good specular and bump mapping.  The passenger and cargo doors are fully animated and we will take a look at these a little later.  Pressing the "A" key allows you access comprehensive views of the exterior of the plane.  With the model it is quite easy to conduct a preflight inspection and the animations afford easy access to the passenger and cargo doors. - Avsim

Having never had the pleasure of flying a Viscount (on-board or actually at the controls), I can't say how accurate or poor they are. But it does seem that the controls are accurate. The nose wheel steering is heavy on the ground, but the aircraft is responsive in the air. It's not possible to barrel roll the aircraft, but roll is reasonable quick for the aircraft size. Trimming is easily done with the tabs. - Mutley's Hangar