Concorde Professional

To quote one of my favorite old shows, Monty Python to be exact, "Now for something completely different!" I should say so! Just when I was getting pretty confident handling the "heavies", like the Boeings and the Airbuses, along comes this product from Just Flight, the Concorde Professional! It's my interpretation of the title that not only is the product VERY professionally presented, but you should also be a "quasi" professional in the virtual skies also! Not for the feint of heart, this aircraft is a whole new ball game! Just Flight and the development team at Phoenix Simulation (PSS) have produced a product truly worthy to bear the historic name, "Concorde".

If you're a beginner in the flight sim realm, I would highly suggest that you get

some hours in the air with the "basic" big boys like the 707, or an Airbus. Learn the difference between light aircraft and large airliners. Once you've done that, you're ready for a real learning experience, not only with the simulated aircraft, but you'll also learn about how this very unique aircraft flies, and how it attains the altitudes and speeds that it does. Now, don't get all discouraged because I said that if you're new, you should start with something a bit easier to fly. I think it may save you some frustration when it comes to the more complex avionics of the Concorde.

For the intermediate simmer, this would be a great product for that next challenge that we are usually looking for in an aircraft! I don't know of too many simmers that are happy to fly "just one plane" all the time! I have a few favorites, some of them quite odd, (possible reflection on the author!), but I'm always wanting more, to take another step up into those clouds a bit further! This aircraft will offer you, the intermediate simmer, not only a learning challenge, but a piloting challenge as well.

For all you "pros" out there with as many hours on the sim as you might have at your daily job, this product still has some challenge in it for you too! As I said before, experience in the "heavies" is highly suggested, and even if you have some experience with the fine Freeware Concorde’s that are out there, this again, is a whole new ball game. One look inside the flight deck of this aircraft, and not only did I say "Oh-oh" as I did with the Just Flight 707 product, I did something that I'm not prone to do too often! Dig out the manual, print up the tutorials, and do some reading! There's a lot more going on in this aircraft than one would expect. As an example, fuel transfers between tanks at all stages of the flight, to help maintain the proper attitude. We'll get into details of what your job is going to entail in a bit. Let me fill you

in a bit on the Concorde, just in case you've been living in a cave!

Both beautiful and at the same time, an engineering marvel, the Concorde is probably one of the best known commercial aircraft that has ever been built. Its ability to sustain Mach 2 for up to three hours remains a record that has not yet been broken. As the world's only supersonic aircraft, Concorde was able to cruise the skies at more than twice the speed of sound, approximately 1350 mph, with a view from over 11 miles up (FL600). One of its more popular flights, from London to New York would take about three and a half hours!

Back in 1956 Great Britain and France started separate projects working towards supersonic capability in a passenger jet. Realizing that they were both heading in the same direction, instead of competing with each other, they joined forces in 1962 and worked to develop an aircraft jointly. The first flight of the British prototype took place in Bristol on April 9, 1969. Being a bit on the paranoid side, the inspectors were especially concerned about the safety of this new type of aircraft, and subjected it to over 5000 hours of testing before it was certified for passenger flight. This in itself was the beginning of record breaking for the Concorde, for no other aircraft had ever been subjected to that much testing!

The Supersonic Era was ushered in by British Airways flying from London Heathrow to Bahrain and Air France from Paris to Rio on January 21, 1976. Concorde's fastest flight was from New York to London in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds! Wow! British Airways and Air France were the only operators of the Concorde.

Here's one of many things that makes the Concorde so unique. While the Concorde measures 204 feet in length, while in flight, due to the heating of the airframe, the fuselage stretches anywhere from 6 to 10 inches! Another very distinguishing characteristic is the familiar "droop-nose" that improves visibility for the pilot for takeoffs and landings. The four Rolls "593/610" engines provided 32,000 pounds of thrust dry, and 38,140 pounds of thrust when

reheat (afterburners if you will) were engaged. If you want more info on the Concorde, here's an interesting site with pics and info: www.britishairways.com/concorde.

As you can see by the screenshots, the exterior of the aircraft is extremely detailed, right down to the configuration of the air intakes! The modeling is superb. Very smooth, clean, and extremely real looking! I have never seen the "real deal" before, but I can only imagine that if it is as beautiful as this model, it's truly, as they say, a work of art! I remember how I used to say that my 1969 Cougar (another work of art!) had great "lines". The same goes for this beautiful aircraft! A classic indeed!

The flight control surfaces work smoothly and again, realistically, with detail in every corner. The distinctive double - delta shaped wings, and its narrow shaped, "pointed at both ends" fuselage are masterfully rendered to score big points in the realism department! The package comes with four liveries, which realistically reflects the only two airlines to operate the Concorde, and the detail can be found in the paint jobs as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "smooth, clean, and realistic looking"!

Fully animated parts include the unique nosecone and nose visor; landing gear with compression and extension of main bogies, nose wheel steering, tail wheel and elevons; a split rudder, passenger door, landing light pods, 3D engine fan blades, engine intake ramps and thrust reverser nozzles. The flight modeling is as close to perfect as they can get it! I think you'll be surprised if you just "hop in and take off" into the wild blue! This is where you would say "oops"! The model also comes with a re-heat effect which looks very realistic, especially at night, and an authentic version of Concorde's unique INS (Inertial Navigation System).

So, in a nutshell, this aircraft looks great, and we haven't even gone inside yet. I have to admit that I do enjoy taking screen shots, and while taking some exterior view shots for this article, I went a little crazy with the "print screen" key! My screen shot program was working overtime! I couldn't help looking at all the great angles and "lines" on this aircraft! Simply beautiful!

The beauty of the aircraft extends into the small, but well designed flight deck, where panels, sub-panels, gauges and all other flight instruments are beautifully rendered, and easily read. The developers used some of the latest technology in recreating as realistically as possible, the modeling of the aircraft systems, controls and indicators. It is highly recommended that you read the very well written manual, which is packed with detailed information on all flight systems, and also includes aircraft performance data, tables and charts galore, and excellent illustrated graphics of panels and systems that are clearly and conveniently labeled. The printed manual is 159 pages. At least give it a good look-see before you take the tutorial flights, again a highly recommended option. The tutorials are in PDF format, accessed through the Start Menu, Programs, Just Flight, and then Concorde Professional, along with the Panel Configuration tool that will be covered later in the review. There are 92 pages of material, but it is more paper intensive than ink intensive, and again, it is highly recommended that you do print this Tutorial manual out as they follow the pre-saved tutorial flights that are set up in your "Select a Flight"

section of MSFS2004 under Just Flight Tutorial Flights. They make it as easy and as painless to learn how to fly this aircraft as possible. I found the tutorials were well written and thorough. Utilizing the Manual and Tutorial, you'll be able to figure out where everything is located, but since just about EVERYTHING works, you still have some eyeballing to do, so clean your glasses (if you wear them!) and get ready to learn to fly the fastest passenger aircraft ever created!. This is absolutely a "professional" rendition of the flight deck!

As you can plainly see, this is a serious aircraft model! This is no "Glass Cockpit". Concorde utilized the older style gauges and indicators. Here's what the Panel features include:

- Realistically modeled cockpit instruments. (They’re not exaggerating here!)
- True 3D effect ADI Ball.
- Zoomed Panel mode for precise instrument flying. (Very handy and easily accessible.)
- Accurate, functional Virtual Cockpit. ((Again, no exaggeration!)
- Authentic autopilot and flight director system models all the modes found on the real aircraft.
- Realistic Inertial Navigation System (INS) Control Display Unit (CDU).
- The Autopilot can be driven by the INS, by the built in GPS within Flight Simulator, or by an external program or module, i.e. FS Navigator.
- Electronic TCAS Display.
- Functional ADF2 receiver.
- A complex Flight Engineer panel, where each sub panel can be zoomed by clicking for easier operation.
- Realistically modeled aircraft systems include Electrics, Hydraulics, Fuel Management, Air Conditioning, Pressurization and Ventilation, and
complex Power Plant Controls and instruments.
- Complex Fuel and Center of Gravity (CG%) management.
- Virtual Flight Engineer can automatically control aircraft systems, making flying and learning the aircraft a whole lot easier!
- Panel Configuration Utility that allows you to assign custom key combinations or joystick buttons to numerous panel functions
- The complete panel state, or set up is saved when a Flight Simulator flight is saved, and is automatically restored when that flight is loaded
later.

Did you happen to notice how many times the words "realistic" and "complex" were used? Just Flight and Phoenix Simulation have done an outstanding job in recreating the "complexity" and uniqueness of this aircraft in Concorde Professional! The extremely realistic modeling is the reason that beginners to the hobby might become frustrated with the product and themselves! Crawl, walk, and then run, fall down, get up and run some more! That's how we learn! I am finding it rather fun learning to fly this aircraft. Doing it "by-the-book" is a challenge that I think most simmers that are into ultimate realism in flight modeling and looks would enjoy immensely! Just be prepared to do some book work!

Because of the complexity of the model, there are some frame rate issues, but nothing that is impossible to overcome. I tried it with everything "maxed out" in the graphics and AI Traffic departments, and of course, this is where the frame rates had a bit of catching up to do in some of the views. Toning down the "sliders" helped with the frame rates, and you still have great graphics and effects! Once again, this is an area that you are going to have to experiment with, per your own particular system. The option is there for you to choose a flight model with no Virtual Cockpit, for those of you with slower systems. Even with no VC, the realism of the 2D panel and Engineers panels really makes up for the loss of the VC. If you want to know what I run this product on click HERE for my system specs.

Mentioned earlier was the Virtual Flight Engineer, which can automatically control some of the various aircraft systems. This frees you up to take on the Pilot Flying responsibilities such as course settings, radio settings, speed bug settings, and autopilot settings. I had reviewed ITVV’s (Intelligent Television and Video Ltd) British Airways Concorde Documentary, which showcased an actual flight from London’s Heathrow to New York's JFK, and came to find out that these folks that fly these beauties are doing more than just putting it on autopilot and letting computers take over. The Engineer is constantly checking, adjusting, and getting those darn warning buzzers and lights to go off! Being the flight is just a few hours in length, they don't have a whole lot of "leisure" time.

The documentary is offered as part of a package deal with the Concorde Professional model, but you don't have to purchase it. Although I'm glad that I did in fact watch it, for it gave me a little bit of a heads-up on what to look for in the sim model. This is also how I came to my conclusion that this is one of the most realistic aircraft add ons that I've seen, since I had something to compare it to from the documentary! If you have the extra bucks to spend, and are really into the Concorde, I'd also recommend this documentary for your viewing. It's virtually a training aid on the Concorde!

The Panel Configuration utility is accessed thru the Start Menu, under Programs, Just Flight, Concorde, Panel Config. This utility allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts or joystick buttons to the numerous panel functions. You can also customize the startup options and set the volume of the panel-generated sounds, such as the warning sounds you're bound to hear once in awhile. The Startup options are "Start with engines off" and start with a "cold and dark" cockpit. The volume of the panel controls cannot be set from within MSFS2004, so that's why they give you this option in the utility. The Control Assignments are easily configured here also with a few clicks. After making your assignments, this info is saved in a config.pnl file within the Flight Sim Installation Folder under the PSS/Concorde Folder.

To sum it all up, this is one outstanding flight sim aircraft add on! It's got the looks, the complexity of aircraft operations to make this a challenge to fly, and like I've said before, most simmers are always wanting and willing to try something newer, faster, bigger, and better! I do want to stress again however, that this is not an add on for those new to the virtual skies. Like the real aircraft, this is a unique package, offering the ultimate in realism! The cost of the Concorde Professional is £ 29.99 / € 44.95 / $ 44.99 and if you want the Concorde Professional (Limited Edition with the two hour PAL DVD, the five hour extended version is sold out), the package is going to run you £ 34.99 / € 52.95 / $ 52.99; (the Documentary is well worth the extra 8 bucks!). This is not an inexpensive product to purchase, but if you are eager to take the next step up to transonic flight, and fly where there are no others, and you want the realism that you've come to expect out of quality Flight Sim add ons, you just can't go wrong with this product! Except for the minor issue of the frame rates, which was easily rectified with a bit of adjustment, this product performed in an outstanding manner, and the information that comes with the package is also put together in a very professional and informative way. Basically, I'm having a blast learning about and flying the Concorde! The Concorde is ready and waiting for you at Farmboyzim's "General Store"!