Re: FSX Qualitywings 757 .EXE With Seriall
Keena Wiegert
Was it the accidental success story that even the aircraft manufacturers of British Aerospace were surprised by? It certainly was not expected to be a big seller, but it was, if just under 400 airframes produced was a major success story. But a great aircraft it is.
The British Aerospace (BAe) 146 was created to fill in a marketing gap. Faster and bigger than a regional turboprop, but smaller than a standard airliner like the 100 seater segment Fokker 100 and even the smallest of the Boeing 737 family. Designed for the regional and short-haul markets, the 146 was manufactured from 1983 until 2002. The aircraft was offered in three variants, the 146-100, 146-200 and 146-300. The equivalent Avro variants were RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100, plus the QT "Quiet Trader" and QC "Quick Change" variant.
The BAe 146 was marketed heavily as a low maintenance, low operating cost, feeder airliner. Design simplicity was the priority. Many components used were off the shelf products that could be easily sourced with a minimum of specialised tooling required. This went a long way to keeping the maintenance cost of the airliner down. Using the knowledge gained in the production of the Trident and Airbus A300, the wing was made also of as few components as possible. There are no leading edge slats and the top panel of the main wing is a single piece.
The wide passenger cabin of the aircraft had a standard configuration of 5 abreast seating, although a high density 6 abreast configuration was also available... but the most significant aspect of the BAe 146 was it's 4 engine configuration.
The four engine layout is unusual for an airframe of this size. Four engines create complexity, but also reliability, The Avco Lycoming ALF 502 H engines produced 6,500lbf of thrust each, and were chosen for several reasons. First the BAe 146 was designed from the start to be high cantilever wing, T-tail airliner with huge STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) capablities, and the high set engines were set in the best positioned not to ingest dirt and matter in to the engines. Another notion was that at the time there was not a better or more powerful two or twin engine option available.
Electric power was produced by generators on the two outboard engines which gave easier access for maintenance. Keeping down running and maintenance costs, the engines were modular in construction so that parts could more quickly and easily be replaced. The aircraft configuration was also designed to enable high performance on short runways with a superior climb out rate, perfect for clearing nearby obstacles. This also enabled it to perform well at hot and high airfields where lift conditions are poor. When flight testing began, it was found that the aircraft had better takeoff and climb performance than expected, this is certainly enforced by the spectacular BAe's 146 performance in and out of London's City (LCY) airport with it's physical dimensions of the 1,508 m (4,948 ft) long runway and the steep 7.5 glideslope which is double of most 3 approaches.
This highly anticipated JustFlight version of the BAe 146 is not the first one released for the X-Plane Simulator as that notion easily goes to the "Avroliner Project". I have been a huge supporter over the years of the AvroLiner Project by Andreas Much... The "Avroliner Project" was one of those projects that you signed up for, with consistent updates coming along mostly twice a year, but with smaller "Overnight" updates in-between. I loved the aircraft immensely and it was very good for it's time, but the project, sort went a bit sparse with more attention given over later to the actual website than the aircraft, but it is not to forget how much a leader the aircraft was for X-Plane in it's heyday development. A note that the difference between the 146 and the RJ versions is that the earlier 146 has a clockwork dial cockpit, were as the RJ series has a semi-glass cockpit. Currently there are still 94 aircraft in active service in the world, that being 30 BAe 146s and 64 Avro RJs, with most a conversion cargo aircraft.
That sort of sets up the high expectations for this new BAe 146 release from JustFlight with their version of this classic regional airliner, the 146 has already had a release but in the P3D platform format. JustFlight's earlier detail and quality of their aircraft proceeds them, and then add in the advantage of Thranda Design doing all the X-Plane systems and performance, as it puts this release then into the stratosphere of expectation, so can it or even possibly live up to all that high regards?
A first impression and the JustFlight version of the 146-300, certainly does not disappoint on the modeling or the quality... it is certainly on par with the highly regarded Rotate McDonnell Douglas MD-80.
The problem for JustFlight is that they set their standards very high with the detail and quality of say their BAe Hawk T1/A Trainer. The Bae 146 is of course very, very good in context, again the Rotate MD80 is a good bench mark.
One thing to note first off is that BAe 146 is heavy in detail, so it feels heavish on your computer, it sorts of catches up with you (revealing the base modeling in the process) when changing from the internal to external view points, it does not do anything wrong, but you feel the computer has a lot to process or get through to get the changes done... so if you have a light or low powered computer, then you will slightly struggle. Framerate was actually quite good, and in the normal numbers for me between 30fr-36fr with all the bells and whistles running on the ground with the Aerosoft's Zurich scenery installed. But if you struggle now then this airframe won't help you out.
The Texture Quality images here are not shown in the "Maximum" setting, but in "High", but the differences between the two settings is minuscule, and that setting (unless you have a power house computer) is the best compromise between quality and efficiency.
Glass is of course excellent, nicely shaped with great depth, tint and reflection... and delivers in realism. Notable are the aerodynamic strakes on the nose/fuselage (and wings as we will see) that add in authenticity to the aircraft... The 146's wing is interesting. As noted it is high cantilever one piece wing with no leading edge spoilers, but highly efficient. And I love the construction detail that JustFlight have done here as you can easily see the different assembly (Ailerons, flaps, spoilers) sections of the wing frame that are neatly designed and visible. Under wing detail shows all the wing access panels
The leading edge is excellent with that noted aerodynamic splitter above the inner engines. Wing lighting looks authentic as well, but the wingtip inner Nav lights are a bit clumsy, all static dischargers are excellent. There flap guidance tracks on the side of the upper fuselage are really well done and when extended to full flap, extends out to the full complexity of the 146 flap system...
.... I know how hard these complex flap systems are to animate, and JustFlight have done a stirling job here. The lift spoilers here are open, and note the small inner wing aileron that is really well done... as noted the detail here is simply first rate.
The Avco Lycoming ALF 502 H engines are beautifully modeled and perfectly shaped. Inlet and exhaust areas are perfect and nicely cast with a realistic metal cowling on the inlet and lovely shaped engine mounts. The internal fans are highly realistic, but there are no thrust-reverser systems on the BAe 146.
The famous split-airbrake tail assembly is excellent, with the internal rear lighting frame expertly done, as is the bulkhead, airbrake door detail is also very, very good with internal ribbing for strength, and with cutouts for weight savings. Note the wing speedbrake extentions when tail airbrake is activated.
The undercarriage on the T1/A Hawk was exceptional with every joint, component, hydraulic line, hydraulic piston, nut and bolt is all the same and applied here, even the strut labels and markings are also correctly applied. The same can also be said of the BAe 146... in exceptional in the gear detail and realism... The nose gear is stubby...
... but the Eagle Claw trailing link main gear is exceptional in detailing. The work here is based on G-JEAO - Serial No. 1010 LN:10, which was retired from service with British European Airways in 2000 and is now preserved at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum. And the detail reproduced here is from that aircraft in all it's glory. Tyres are again like on the Hawk are excellent as are the cast rims, and bolt detail.
The menu is surprisingly quite small with only eight selections (The Hawk had 21) to choose from and positioned via the usual JustFlight left screen side arrow, scrolling on the arrow will make it transparent. There is another menu built into the pop-up AviTab tablet.
... two lower Cargo Doors and if you are using the Cargo variant then the menu changes to access the one large left rear cargo door. There is an GPU (Ground Power Unit) toggle, but in power supply only and no physical GPU unit? Also noted by their absence, there are no Static Elements?
Note the AviTab plugin is required to use this feature. There is another built in menu built into the AviTab, and this is a very good if basic Weights and Balance menu... the pop-up tablet is accessed by pressing the dark patches on both front side panels.
Press the top left screen change icon and it changes to another aircraft layout menu for again opening the doors, stairs and GPU... But also here you also have a weights and balance setting page to adjust passenger, cargo and the aircraft's fuel weights (arrowed)... all changes are recorded in Empty, Zero Fuel, Total Fuel and Gross weight boxes, that can be switched from Kg to Lb units. Overload the weight (very easy to do on the -100/-200 variants) and it shows up into the red. Top right on the menu are five voice announcements, that can be reset.
... all four access doors are highly detailed (as are the extended stairs), but on board there is a little bit of 3d modeling in the crew seating, but most of the forward galley is simply Lo-Res textures (images)... It is not bad, but to be honest I expected more 3d detail in the galley areas. Cabin is the same... very nice but not overwhelming. But we are actually lucky in X-Plane as the JustFlight P3D version does not have any cabin layout at all?
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