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 that loved flying them. DC Late, Greasy8, Death Cruiser, Whiney Bird and Cigarette Jets were others.

For a long time, we lacked these important aircraft in our simulators but this add-on adds a version to your virtual hangar that is not only looking and sounding 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.

Features:

• 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 takeoff, climb and cruise
• Detailed performance tables to determine V speeds, power settings, takeoff 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

*Note: Initially only the P3D V4 version will be released. The version for 32 bit simulators is expected to follow in May at no additional cost.