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AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Review
Boeing Model 40
Product Information
Publishers: Golden Age Simulations
Description: A collection of Boeing Model 40 variants.
Download Size:
42 MB
Format:
Download
Simulation Type:
FSX & FS9
Reviewed by: Alan Bradbury AVSIM Staff Reviewer - Aug 10, 2009
Where it all started…
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Ask a bunch of aviation enthusiasts which is the most important airliner Boeing ever built, and you’d get a lot of different
answers. Some might say the Model 314 Clipper, it having ushered in reliable scheduled transoceanic travel. Perhaps the
Model 247, being the first modern stressed-skin airliner capable of flying with one engine out. From more recent times,
they might name the 747, which made long distance travel affordable for the masses, or perhaps the 737, it being the
most successful airliner of all time, with thousands built in the past 42 years and still in production. I imagine pretty
much all Boeing’s airliners would be in with a shot.
But if you asked the guy who founded the company – William Edward Boeing –
he’d disagree with all of those choices; apparently there was only one picture of
a Boeing aircraft on the wall of his family home, and that was a picture of the
Boeing B-40.
The level of importance Mr Boeing placed on the B-40 was not mere nostalgia
either. The B-40 was instrumental in the company’s expansion and success; it
was a stepping stone that put Pratt and Whitney at the forefront of aero engine
manufacturing too. To put it bluntly, the B-40 was one of the most significant
aircraft in the whole of aviation history, yet if you ask the average aviation buff
about it, the chances are they will only be vaguely aware of it. Somewhat
unjustly, the B-40 seems to have fallen off the pages of the history books,
overshadowed by the more spectacular contemporary feats of Charles
Lindbergh, Wiley Post, Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart, and of the aircraft they
flew.
But the B-40 can now take its rightful place in the hearts - and the hangars - of
flight simulation fans thanks to Golden Age Simulations. The good news is that
whether you fly FS9 or FSX, you can fly this bird and it won’t even break the
bank to do it.
Never heard of it…
William E Boeing (left) with Pratt and
Whitney pioneer Frederick B
Rentschler, pictured in 1929
To understand the massive significance of the B-40, we’ll have to indulge in a
little history lesson, but don’t worry this one has a good deal of relevance to what you can do today in Flight Simulator.
So if you skip this bit you’ll be missing out on some pretty cool facts.
We’re going back to the 1920’s, a period that was wonderfully distilled and captured on celluloid in the 1975 Robert
Redford movie, The Great Waldo Pepper, which fictionalizes the birth of aviation in the golden age of flight in the USA.
It’s one of the few times where Hollywood managed to get it just right. The world was busily recovering from the horrors
of the Great War – as yet to acquire the WW1 name at that point - nobody then knew there would be a sequel. People
were rocking to the sound of ragtime, new technology such as the telephone was coming into widespread use,
nickelodeon picture theatres were springing up all over the place, and on the roads the Model T Ford was ubiquitous.
Meanwhile, motoring along in the skies overhead aircraft were beginning to demonstrate that they had uses other than
for simply killing your fellow man over the Western Front. Enterprising barnstormers, back from the horrors of war-torn
Europe, had purchased war-surplus DH4s and Jennies and were giving people their first glimpse of the aeroplane and
occasionally offering pleasure flights to the daring public. Whilst on a more serious note, the US Postal Service was
getting heavily involved in using these new-fangled contraptions to deliver mail across the United States.
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Geoffrey de Havilland’s Airco DH-4
was chief among the British military
aircraft types which found a use
delivering mail after the Great War
The Curtiss JN-4 ‘Jenny’ was the
classic barnstormer and early mail
aircraft in the US. For untold
numbers of Americans, this was the
first aircraft type they ever laid eyes
on
So it was not the daring barnstormers who really pushed things, but rather the US Postal Service which was both the
catalyst and the driving force behind civil aviation at this point. Genuine transport passenger flights were a rarity as were
the aircraft in which one could make such a flight, and so the US Postal Service needed to find a reliable aircraft.
Unfortunately, what they had was a motley collection of ex-military spotter and pursuit aircraft (not called fighters in
those days) with which to try and establish air mail routes.
Worse however, was that few of these were domestic types. Much as the US had promised to blacken the skies over
France with hordes of aircraft, they never really got up to speed with aircraft manufacture in the war years. Instead
having to use French and British aircraft types and the trend continued on right after the war. Early US combat and civil
aircraft were almost universally dismal in performance and often downright death traps, with only the Curtiss JN-4
‘Jenny’ and the Thomas Morse ‘Scout’ (both essentially trainers) being of any particular note. Although in a slight dent to
American pride, it had to be admitted that the New York company which built the Thomas Morse was founded by an
English émigré, and the engine it used was French.
The birth of an aviation nation…
There was a plus side in having to use a ragged collection of ex-military types for air mail in the US though; it led to
hundreds of companies sprouting up all over the land to specialize in modifying these old warbirds into something more
suitable for carrying mail, and that meant these enterprising companies learned fast. Without the need to carry bombs,
guns or heavy reconnaissance cameras, such aircraft generally had at least some horsepower to spare with which they
could lift mail after following suitable modification. Among the companies indulging in this work was one founded by a
certain Mr Boeing in 1916, as the Pacific Aero Products Company, which became the Boeing Airplane Company the
following year.
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The B&W seaplane can be
regarded as the first Boeing
aircraft, although it was
actually designed and built
by Pacific Aero Products,
which shortly became the
Boeing Aircraft Company.
William E Boeing’s
expertise with wood, upon
which he had built his
fortune, and his financial
acumen, meant that he had
an eye for quality
construction as well as for
business
PAC started out building seaplanes intended for the US Navy and although their Model B1 (more often known as the B&W
Seaplane) was not bought by the US Navy, both this and its sister aircraft were eventually sold in Canada for use
carrying mail, thus becoming Mr Boeing’s first international aircraft deal. Since the B1 was actually designed by both
Boeing and US Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt, it was a technically a Pacific Aero Products creation and not a
Boeing product. Nevertheless, thanks to this and to William Boeing’s expertise gained from his former career in the
lumber business, the Boeing company was up and running.
Not long after the B&W was built, Boeing employed a Chinese naval graduate and seaplane aviator – Wong Tsu - as an
aircraft designer and set about producing the first genuine all-Boeing product. Then, as now, China was a very go-ahead
country where military aviation was concerned and a smart decision it was to employ Wong Tsu; his design for the
Boeing B2 secured an order for 50 aircraft from the US Navy. Now there’s some unusual trivia for you, Boeing’s first
aircraft - and one of the first aircraft for the US Navy - was designed by a Chinese bloke from Beijing!
Long before the B2 Spirit
stealth bomber took to the
skies, the Boeing Model B2
Seaplane, of which fifty were
built for the US Navy, had
that designation. This was the
first all-Boeing aircraft.
Designed by Chinese aviator
Wong Tsu, the B2 launched
Boeing into the big league of
military aviation contractors
and gave William Boeing
some useful contacts high up
in the US Navy, which would
later prove very handy
This success aside, it was really the company’s experience in modifying military types for the US Postal Service which led
to Boeing having a work force skilled enough to contemplate designing and building its own more advanced aircraft
types. Ironically, this is where a former enemy’s aircraft gave them a bit of a leg up. To the victor the spoils, as they
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say; and among those spoils was perhaps the best German aircraft of the Great War – the Fokker DVII. The DVII might
reasonably be compared to the Me262 from World War Two in this respect, in that it was picked over by the Allies when
peace came with much being learned and copied.
For fact fans, the Fokker DVII is the only aircraft specifically mentioned in the Armistice demands at the end of the Great
War, which stated that all Fokker DVIIs must be handed over to the Allied forces. That should give you some idea of how
worried they were about the thing and the esteem in which it was held. This is hardly surprising given that it received
design input from Germany’s premier fighter ace, Manfred Von Richthofen - the Red Baron himself.
With its advanced welded steel construction,
high compression BMW and Mercedes engines
and superb flight characteristics, the Fokker
DVII was a flying nightmare for the Allies in
the Great War. It was a superb machine, but
when the war ended, it became the early focus
for civil aviation design too. During the war,
among the flyers who made a name for
themselves in this aircraft, was a certain
flamboyant airman by the name of Herman
Goering
Contrary to popular belief, the Fokker was a German aircraft only in terms of sponsorship and patronage and was really
the product of Dutchman Anthony Fokker’s aircraft company. Nevertheless, when the wind ceased to blow Germany’s
way after the Great War, and with an embargo on German aviation, Fokker was smart enough to hitch his wagon to the
new star that was the burgeoning US aviation industry by nipping back over the border to Holland and starting to build
stuff with lucrative export sales potential.
Among the advances ‘the Flying Dutchman’ brought to the world, was the use of highly advanced welded steel aircraft
fuselages, something which gave his early airliner designs a head start. But Boeing, having of course had their hands on
his DVII - with its welded fuselage construction - were not slow to realize that this was the way to go in spite of having
been born from William E Boeing’s expertise with wood. In fact, one of Boeing’s first ever fighter aircraft - the FB-1 - was
essentially nothing more than a redesigned Fokker DVII with a different engine. But even so, it was good enough for the
US military to buy it in large numbers back in 1923.
Boeing’s early forays into
military aircraft design were
heavily influenced by examining
the Fokker DVII. Here, the
Boeing FB-5 displays an obvious
lineage back to the genius of
Dutchman Anthony Fokker’s
devastatingly effective DVII
Going postal…
Long before Kevin Costner was making money with the notion of delivering mail across the US with one horsepower,
most of America’s early aircraft designers were similarly disposed to have a shot at it with 449 horses. And so we move
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forward a little, to 1926, and the difficult birth of Boeing’s first ever airliner; this being the year when the US Postal
service finally tired of making do with old bombers and fighters to deliver the mail and deciding to put out a tender for a
new aircraft suitable for the purpose.
However, with huge stocks of the V-12 water-cooled L-12 Liberty Engine the US had churned out for use in the Great
War sat gathering dust in warehouses awaiting use, they specified that the new type had to use this engine. This was a
mistake; the design was nearly ten years old at this point and what the engine offered in widespread availability, it
lacked in performance with a power to weight ratio of just half a horsepower for every pound of weight. Somewhat
predictably, most aircraft companies which submitted prototypes for the fly-off competition to select a contractor were
hamstrung from truly innovating by having to use the heavy old Liberty Engine.
In the rush to get air mail up and running, some
famous mistakes were made, and not just in the
selection of a suitable aero engine. Among these is
one of the most sought after postage stamps in the
world – the Inverted Jenny – which is a result of the
stamps having to go through the printing press twice
to reproduce the dual colors, with the plate
accidentally being flipped over for that second run.
Few genuine Inverted Jennies exist, and they have
been forged a number of times, but on the rare
occasions when genuine ones come up for sale, they
have been known to fetch almost a million Dollars for
a single example. For trivia fans, the Inverted Jenny,
and its huge value, was part of the plot for the movie
‘Brewster’s Millions’, in which Richard Prior had to
spend a vast fortune with nothing to show for it in
order to qualify for an inheritance, one of his ideas
being to use the rare stamp to post a letter, thereby
reducing its value
Boeing joins the competition…
Among the companies which put in a prototype for consideration was Boeing, who had already begun designing stuff in
the hope of winning Army, Air Force and Navy contracts for newer types. However, these forces were also in love with
their stockpiles of the Liberty Engine and often issued the same design stipulations for reasons of economy. Because of
this, the fledgling B-40 type which Boeing submitted for evaluation by the US Postal Service, did not win the contract. It
was an aircraft from Douglas which narrowly beat it to win the lucrative deal for 50 aircraft, this being a precursor to a
business rivalry that would last well into the 20th century between the two companies.
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The original Boeing B-40 with a V12 Liberty engine installation. In
common with the Fokker DVII
prototype, when first flown, the B40 was found to be a little too
short to provide good directional
stability, so, like the DVII
prototype, it had an additional
section inserted into the fuselage
at the tail, to put the rudder and
tailplane further back. Other
shortcomings in the design
included a tendency for the
veneered wooden fuselage skin to
crack under toque, something
which was corrected on later
models with greater use of steel
and alloy
But that was not the end of the story for the B-40 by any stretch of the imagination. Eddie Hubbard - a friend of William
Boeing – was a Northwest air mail pilot who had previously worked for Boeing and flown the B&W seaplane with him on
the first ever official international air mail flight between the US and Canada. Hubbard put Boeing in touch with Frederick
Brant Rentschler. This was with a view of creating a re-born B-40 so that the partners could start an airline to bid for the
Postal Service’s mail contracts, since it had recently announced the contracting out of mail routes to private airlines.
Rentschler had been the head honcho at the Wright Aeronautical Company but he was frustrated by outdated and
blinkered business practices and had quit his post. He was a man with a vision, and that vision had seen him busily
contemplating the way forward for aircraft design. He had come to the conclusion that what was needed was a much
more reliable, lightweight engine which could offer more horsepower. Rentschler’s goal was to design an engine that
would deliver at least one horsepower per pound of weight - twice what the Liberty could manage - and that meant it
had to be air-cooled; ditching the weight of the cooling system. This at a time when everyone was convinced watercooled engines were the only way forward, was largely due to the ubiquitous Liberty and the inherent superiority the
water-cooled Fokker DVII had demonstrated.
Unfortunately, Rentschler’s business partners were mostly investment bankers and despite that seeming to be a good
thing, at the time they were more interested in small quick profits than the long term potential that producing a new
engine might create since it required development costs approaching half a million dollars. He would often entreat them:
‘Why carry water, when you can carry mail?’ but his sound reasoning and intelligent pleas always fell on deaf ears.
The beginning of a famous partnership…
To achieve his aims, Rentschler instead approached a Connecticut business
– the Pratt and Whitney Machine Tool Company – and in partnership with
them and their major monetary investment, he created an engine which
would turn out to be one of the most successful of all time – the Pratt and
Whitney Wasp Radial.
Ironically, Wright Aeronautical eventually profited from some of the
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groundwork laid by Rentschler when he was trying to get them to build an
air-cooled radial, and this culminated in another legendary aero engine, the
Wright Cyclone. As everyone knows, this is the engine which evolved into
what powered perhaps the ultimate piston engine Boeing, the one that
ushered in the nuclear age – the B-29 Superfortress.
Test System
ASUS P5 KPL SE motherboard
2Mb of DDR 3 RAM
ATI Radeon 4800 PCI-x graphics card with
Jan 2009 Catalyst drivers
Windows XP Home with SP3 and DirectX 9.0c
Saitek Cyborg EVO joystick
Saitek rudder pedals
Track-IR 4.
Eddie Hubbard knew that if the Wasp engine was married to the Boeing B40 fuselage, it would create an aircraft that would wipe the floor with any
other companies bidding for the air mail contracts. Boeing had already
toyed with the idea, and so naturally agreed. The two were so convinced of
the potential for success, they put in a bid for a mail contract which
equated to them being able to carry one pound of mail between Chicago
and San Francisco for just 2 dollars and 88 cents, and they planned to
carry passengers too! Their bid was a massive $1.37 less than the next
Flying Time:
nearest rival bid from Western Air Express and so needless to say, it won
20 hours
the contract. However, not everyone was convinced they could pull it off
and the Postal Service demanded an enormous half-million dollar surety
bond from Boeing, to guard against them not being able to make good on
their promise. William Boeing’s confidence was such that he personally put this money up.
To make good on the deal, Boeing had to build and test 25 of the Pratt and Whitney Wasp equipped B-40As (having to
beg some Wasp engines that had been allocated to the US Navy by calling in favors). They also had to form their own
airline – Boeing Air Transport, complete with pilots and infrastructure. If they failed to make the July 1927 deadline, they
would forfeit the half million dollar bond. That gave them less than six months to get everything ready, and all this at a
time when civilian airlines were becoming subject to strict regulations enforced on them by pressure from railroadfriendly US Congressmen, notably Pennsylvania’s Clyde Kelly.
Kelly was the driving force behind the Air Mail Act of 1925, ostensibly under the guise of saving taxpayers money, but his
motives were more in line with helping the railroad companies. What became known as the ‘Kelly Act’ prompted the
move to using private companies for the deliveries of mail and forced greater regulation on the airlines and its pilots,
including the introduction of a proper pilot’s license system. Notwithstanding these additional pressures, Boeing made
the deadline with one day to spare and commenced mail deliveries on the first day of July 1927 with their shiny new,
revamped B-40.
It was a staggering success and financially rewarding too, for a ticket to fly on the B-40 cost around 200 dollars back
then, which equates to more than 2,000 dollars in today’s terms.
Ahead of its time…
The B-40A was an amazing aircraft for the period, and here’s another one for all you trivia fans; it was only the second
ever aircraft to obtain a US type certification (pipped to the accolade of being the first one by another aircraft few will
have heard of; the 1926 Buhl CA-3 Airster). The Boeing B40A could carry 1,200 lbs of mail in two cargo compartments
along with two passengers, at around 140 mph and with 120 gallons of fuel in three fuel tanks, and it could haul all that
stuff a long way too. An improved B model incorporated an up-rated Wasp engine, with a later C model up-rating the
engine again by the use of the Wasp-derivative Pratt and Whitney Hornet. The C and revised B models also increased
passenger capacity to four; were faster, more refined, and carried another twenty gallons of fuel too.
On top of all this, the Boeing B-40 demonstrated a remarkable safety record, one which went a long way toward
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improving the public image of passenger air travel in its early years. Even today, these statistics sound fairly impressive
– in the first two years of operation, Boeing Air Transport’s B-40s flew five and a half million miles, delivered 1,300 tons
of mail, 6,000 passengers, and during all that time there were only three fatalities which equates to one fatality every
1.75 million miles. Not bad going for the 1920’s and flying in all types of weather conditions!
Bringing back a Golden Age…
So, the first ever Boeing airliner, a genuine historic classic, a flying legend, and one that undoubtedly deserves a place in
your virtual hangar, given that it still exhibits impressive performance even by today’s standards. However, all this is
assuming Golden Age Simulations have done a good enough job of replicating the real thing. So let’s find out if they
have managed to do so…
The B-40 gives you a chance to
indulge in a bit of historic airliner
flight and promises some
considerable challenges
Installation and documentation
The Golden Age Simulations Boeing B-40 is available as a download from their website – www.goldenagesimulations.com
– or from a number of other online sources, including SimMarket and Flight 1. Prices vary depending on where you
purchase it, but it is listed as costing $19.95 on the developer’s website. You should note that this is the price for each
version, not both of them; the FSX and FS9 variations being separate products. Worth noting too is that the FSX version
is not a simple port over, it is a genuine FSX version so you do need the specific version for FS platform you would like to
run the B-40 in.
A word of warning here by the way, if you go to the Golden Age Simulations website you’ll find there is a demonstration
video of this B-40 and if you watch it, the moment you hear the engine start up, you will be reaching for your credit card
as the audio for the engine on this thing is something to behold. The Golden Age Simulation’s website is well worth a
visit even if you only have a passing interest in the B-40, since there are a number of freebie files to be had from there,
including aircraft and scenery.
The B-40 download weighs in at 42Mb for the FS9 incarnation and 39Mb for the FSX version, indicating that they
genuinely are different products for each sim. While that might sound fairly hefty in size for a simple biplane, that is
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because you don’t just get a simple biplane in this product. What you actually get is two genuinely different B-40 models
(the B4 and the C variant, with three different paint schemes). You also get some scenery of what was once a very
famous airstrip now no longer in existence, this being Alhambra Airport which is depicted circa 1930, but more on this
later.
There are three different paint jobs in
the package, here we see the FS9
version of the B-40 B4 model in
United Airlines racy 1920s colors,
which were intended to mask any oil
smudges around the engine cowlings
with that dark green paint job. The
B4 model was the upgraded fourpassenger version of the B variant.
Highly evocative of the period, the B40 B4 also comes sporting the
marvelous Western Air Express livery
with its Native American Indian War
bonnet logo, a paint job which
absolutely screams 1920s Americana
at you. This screenshot is again from
the FS9 version
The B-40 C comes in the silver Pacific
Air Transport livery of Addison
Pemberton’s restored 5339 – the
oldest airworthy Boeing airliner in
existence. Once again this is the FS9
incarnation
Whether for FS9 or FSX, the download arrives as a simple zip file, which when unzipped, gives you an installation exe file
and some brief instructions on where to find more info after installation. In either incarnation, it installs faultlessly and
places the three B-40s ready for use in your sim of choice, as well as some comprehensive PDF, Word and html file
documentation about how to fly the thing. You’ll find this within the FS folder, and in the Model C’s folder too, although
there is no Windows menu link to this stuff so you’ll have to navigate to those folders manually in order to find it. It is
well worth doing that though, as among the goodies there are checklists and useful historical notes as well as something
of a minor gem in terms of documentation too; this being a detailed report on what it is like to fly the real thing.
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Part of the B-40
documentation
which comes with
the package: The
documentation is
excellent, and
includes amongst
other things, a
fascinating insight
into what it is like to
pilot the only
airworthy one in
existence, by the
man who restored it
and flies it regularly
- Addison
Pemberton. It is
apparent from his
writing, just how
capable an aircraft
the B-40 was and
still is, given that
Addison has flown
his restored B-40C
across the entire
continental US,
from New York to
San Francisco
Building a dream
As an interesting little aside, it’s worth pointing out the story behind the restoration of what is now the oldest airworthy
Boeing airliner in existence. For many years there were simply no airworthy B-40s at all, despite the fact that 82 of them
were built, which is a large number for a specialist civil aircraft from the 1920s. But that wasn’t about to stop one of
classic aviation’s most colorful characters – Addison Pemberton – from achieving his dream of flying one.
Addison and his family are the driving force behind Pemberton and Sons Aviation, a company with a reputation for doing
fantastic restorations of classic biplanes. But for years Addison was prevented from his dream of flying a B-40 by the
simple fact that there were none available to restore. Only two preserved examples are to be found in museums
worldwide.
Undaunted, Addison sought to find the wreckage of a B-40 which crashed in fog on a mail flight in Oregon back in 1928,
killing the single passenger and severely injuring Grant Donaldson, the pilot. But try as he might, he could not locate the
wreckage despite an extensive search. A local legend that the aircraft had been carrying diamonds at the time of the
crash (which seems to have some truth) prompted many to look for it unsuccessfully, until in 1993, an historian found
the crash site and local aviation enthusiasts gained permission to recover the wreck with a view to displaying it as of
significant historical interest.
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But then they had the idea of contacting Pemberton and Sons Aviation to see if it would be possible to restore even
though they held out little hope it could be done given the state of the burned out wreckage. This was all the prompting
Addison Pemberton needed. However, if you think that sounds like an easy task, look at the picture of the burned out
wreck below taken near the time of the crash and consider what over sixty years of exposure to the elements would
have done to it…
The wreckage of the B-40, which is
now airworthy and flying again!
The restored B-40 back in the air,
being piloted by the charismatic
Addison Pemberton, who also
provides the unique documentation
for the simulated version. Take a
close look at this picture and you’ll
notice something deceptive about the
B-40 too, just look at the size of the
Addison in comparison to the aircraft
– that’s right, the B-40 is an
enormous aeroplane
Addison Pemberton is clearly a man who likes a challenge; 18,000 hours of work, spread over nine years, saw the
charred incomplete wreckage of the crashed B-40 transformed into a gleaming pristine example of its former glory.
Although obviously not all of the parts are original, nevertheless, enough of them are in there to make it genuinely the
oldest airworthy Boeing airliner in existence! You can learn more about that restoration on the Pemberton’s website, and
there is some really nice video footage of the B-40 which can be viewed too. here. Frankly, it’s worth a visit just to hear
the thing crank up for the first time and to see the look of obvious joy on people’s faces, which you can do by viewing
one of those videos.
But perhaps of more interest to flight simulation fans, Addison Pemberton
provided much of the knowledge required to create the Golden Age Simulations
B-40 and chipped in with advice and information on the flight characteristics
when it was being developed. So unlike a lot of other classic aircraft which can
grace the virtual skies of your simulator, this one has impeccable credentials
from one of the few men in a position to know about such things, and he gives
that advice freely in the product’s excellent and informative documentation.
External model and textures…
The external model on this particular add-on airliner has perhaps more
significance than most other airliners in that you can see a lot of it even when
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you are sat in the cockpit, so we’ll have a good look at that aspect first.
Right from the start you notice that the B-40 is a fairly huge aircraft, which
becomes even more apparent the moment you have something to compare it to.
Viewing it in isolation with no frame of reference, it is easy to imagine the thing
being comparable in size to other 1920’s biplanes, but it most certainly is not.
With a 44 foot wingspan and a 33 foot long fuselage, the wingspan is wider than
that of the 12-seater LearJet 60, and it is ten feet longer than a Model 75
Boeing Stearman. This isn’t some cutesy little stunt plane, and it doesn’t fly like
one either!
Detail on the textures of the B-40 is a little disappointing to my eyes, as is the
rather flat appearance of the colors, and I think it could perhaps have included a
few more screws and such drawn upon them, along with some better shading to
emulate the way light often falls on alloy and doped canvas in an uneven fashion
(compare it to the above picture of the real thing). It’s not terribly bad by any
stretch of the imagination, but I had a quick crack at tarting up those texture
files a little bit to see if it would be possible to get something a little more
pleasing without too much effort, and it seems this is so.
As it stands, although the paint schemes for all three B-40s you get in this
package are wonderfully evocative of the era in terms of period design, they just
look a little too ‘computery’ for my tastes. You might disagree of course, and
there’s no doubt that it is still a very pretty thing to look at when draped in
those colours; I just think it could be more so with a little effort. See the
comparison pictures below for an expanded look at this point, but keep in mind
that for any model you find in FS, replacement textures tend to abound (you are
on AVSIM after all!), so this point alone should not be considered a deal breaker
as there are more than enough talented freeware painters out there to make
this a non-issue.
The B-40 may be dwarfed by the
Boeing 757, but it is certainly not
small for a single-engine biplane
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William E Boeing is pictured here
shaking hands with Grant Donaldson.
It is apparent just how big the B-40
is from this picture; this is not just
any B-40 either, it is number 5339,
which is the aircraft Donaldson was
flying when he crashed all those
years ago, the same airframe which
would eventually be restored back to
flying condition by Addison
Pemberton, being one of the aircraft
depicted in the Golden Age
Simulations package too
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The real B-40C in flight. With the
aluminum-doped wings and variety of
metal finishes, there are some
interesting textures to be seen on the
actual aircraft, and indeed the way
light bounces around off them. Whilst
sometimes a tricky proposition to
emulate with specular highlights,
alpha channel mapping and such, it is
something which can add much to
the appearance of a model
The default texture on the B-40C lets
it down in my opinion. If you take a
look at the title picture for this
review, you can see that the textures
do pick up reflections in FSX, as
evidenced by the glint on the green
paintwork on the dorsal decking in
that picture. But when not glinting
away in the sunlight, the default
textures seems less like metal and
more like plastic to me, with vast
featureless expanses of grey,
punctuated by far too glossy
highlights. This needs some work
Here’s a quick tweak to the default
textures which I tried. This was
simply a case of eyedroppersampling some colors from a photo of
the real thing in Photoshop, and then
pre-shading the thing a bit with the
airbrush in PS using those sampled
blue and white hues. I didn’t spend
forever doing this, as it was more to
illustrate a point than to get so far
from the original textures as to be of
no relevance, but it is apparent even
from this minor tweak what could
have been done to improve matters
texturally, and this certainly looks a
lot more like the silvery colors of the
real thing to me, even simply taken
to this minor level of correction
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Here again we see that the default
texture leaves things looking a little
flat. Notice the vast expanse of
featureless grey on the underside of
the upper wing in particular, which
makes it obvious you are looking at a
computer-generated color
Wing view with my very minor
texture tweak. This has added a bit
of tonal variety to things and created
the impression light may be shining
through the wing canvas. More could
certainly be attempted than what I
have quickly done here, but it does
indicate the slightly lackluster
approach to the default texturing.
With so much of that big wing on
view when you fly the B-40, adding a
bit of life to it can certainly do no
harm, so one would hope the
developers would take this
suggestion on board, or if you are a
painting genius, you could address it
yourself and probably do a better job
than me. Doubtless somebody will,
since this is a lovely model and
deserving of the effort. This
incidentally is the FSX version, the
FS9 variant seems to make a better
showing of putting reflections onto
the under-wing surfaces by default
Native Americans…
Regardless of texturing complaints, the above pictures show you that the 3D modeling itself is very good indeed and is
indicative of what can be done with FSDS, which is the software used to make this model, as opposed to the more
common G-Max you tend to find being used with commercial add-ons. Detail is not over the top, it is apparent that
polygons have wisely been kept under control in order to provide some speedy frames per second, but not to any real
visual detriment.
This is not everyone’s preference of course – some people want every nut and bolt modeled - but personally I am a fan
of this more measured approach to 3D modeling, especially where FSX is concerned as it all adds to the fluidity and in
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the case of this model there is more than enough detail modeled to be convincing. Good frame rates are of course
particularly important with an aircraft such as this, since it is likely you will fly it in good VFR weather at fairly low level,
so for a change this is an airliner where you will want the autogen cranked up. Fortunately it performs very well when
you do that (in either FS9 or FSX, since each version is a genuine native one), and this is to be applauded from a design
standpoint.
That is not to say that modeling or texturing has been entirely frugal in its implementation; there are some particularly
nice touches to be found. The engine detail is very well modeled, even going so far as to display the Pratt and Whitney
logo in great detail on the engine block. In flight and when starting up, the exhausts emit a nice - if slightly alarming gaseous flame effect too. The propeller boss is especially well animated, exhibiting the ‘wagon wheel effect’ of appearing
to spin backwards every once in a while as seen on lots of film footage of propellers. Strictly speaking, the human eye
rarely sees that kind of effect since it is caused by momentary synchronization of the propeller RPM with the gate speed
of film through a camera, but I liked the effect all the same and it made the thing seem very believable to me.
Everything down to the HT leads and
plugs, and that classic Pratt and
Whitney logo shows up on the Wasp
engine. Even zoomed in to this
extent, you can see it stands up
pretty well to inspection. The sounds
for this particular bit of the simulated
B-40, are something to be savored
too
Detailing and effects are good. Here
we can see the very authenticlooking flame-spouting exhausts in
action, and stuff such as the exposed
welded lattice tubing of the fuselage
near the tail wheel hint at what lies
under that shiny skin. If we are being
picky, those exhausts should bend
downwards at their ends, to keep the
flames away from any flammable
fuselage doping, but that is a minor
point
Where dimensional accuracy is concerned, both the B-4 and C models are pretty spot on as far as I can tell and they
have plenty of animated parts too, including the cargo hold doors, the cabin doors, and the engine cowling cooling vents.
So no complaints there. One thing which is a little disappointing, however, is that the inter-wing bracing wires remain
resolutely stationary. It’s nice to look out on the wing and see the ailerons and control linkages all moving. Every biplane
I’ve ever flown seems to be alive when you look out at the rigging, which twangs and vibrates as the wings and flying
wires flex under aerodynamic loads; seeing it sitting motionless as you belt along is something of a mood killer for me
personally. It may be an FPS design constraint to not have animated the flying wires, but frankly I’d have happily taken
any frame-rate hit to see this implemented as it is such an integral feature of the biplane experience.
So, the external modeling is pretty good but there’s a slight let down by the rather lackluster shading of the textures.
This however, is infinitely preferable to the other way around since it is something which can easily be fixed by the user
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by simply repainting or downloading repainted textures.
Climb aboard…
Upon loading up the cockpit, you can see that this is a very different proposition from the average Boeing airliner. Whilst
it is not as spartan as other aircraft of 1920’s vintage, navigational aids are at a minimum with what would nowadays be
considered adequate only for VFR excursions in good weather. But it is an accurate representation of the equipment the
first pioneering airline pilots found themselves using and is bound to instill a sense of admiration in those early flyers.
The B-40 B-4 version’s cockpit from
FS9. Whilst you aren’t exactly faced
with the multitude of dials one
typically finds in a Boeing airliner, it’s
not quite as Spartan as the period
would lead you to think, and it is
authentic, which gives you some idea
of how go-ahead the B-40 was. Even
so, for flying in IFR conditions, you’ll
certainly find things challenging with
no artificial horizon
The B-40 C is broadly similar, but
you do have to watch the differences
between the B and C variants, you
can see it has different engine
controls. Forget that and you’ll be
looking at overheated cylinder heads
in no time at all!
So, there is no standard modern blind flying panel; what you get is the old-style turn and slip indicator, a whiskey
compass, an airspeed indicator and an altimeter, and that’s about it as far as flying aids goes. All the other dials – of
which there are a fair few - are related to engine and electrical management. This is somewhat indicative of the relative
lack of sophistication and reliability of engines back in the 1920’s, when engine management was as much an art as it
was a science, and something pilots had to keep an eye on.
Fortunately for us, we do not have to set down in fields and get the spanners out every 200 miles to tighten up various
bits and pieces, but we do still have to treat the engine with respect on this B-40 for it is well-enough modeled to mean
that abusing it or ignoring those temperature gauges will see your flight curtailed.
Again, the cockpit textures are a little on the clean side for my tastes - maybe I’m just used to flying aeroplanes with
dirt-strewn cockpits in real life - but I can live with it as it could well depict how the aircraft looked when brand new.
Clean or not, everything seems very well modeled; all the linkages for the throttle cables and pushrods, rudder pedals
and various accoutrements are present and correct with good animations too. Somewhat alarming upon first
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acquaintance, is how far back you are from the business end of things, and this provides a hint at how tricky visibility
might be on final approach.
You might be surprised to note however, that things are not as archaic as you might expect. The engine operates in
much the same way as a modern piston prop with carb heat and mixture doing all the same things as they do in your
Cessna, so you don’t have to be some kind of arcane genius to fly it. Neither is this an aircraft that required a plucky
mechanic to swing the prop, for it has a starter mechanism with one of the coolest crank up sounds you are ever likely to
hear.
But one thing that is very much of the era in operation if not in looks is the avionics when it comes to the radio. This is
where you know you are back in the early days and there is no concession to modernity other than a digital readout on a
simple single channel radio, adequate for ATC directions and nothing more. Navigation in those days consisted of looking
over the side for a convenient road or river, and at a push, landing in a field to ask a farmer where you are and you
might well find yourself emulating that kind of flying. That’s not a bad point though; it is what makes this thing a fun
challenge.
If the avionics in the average Boeing confuse you, then this one will
be a welcome change; the radio is not likely to present much of a
technical challenge when it comes to understanding how to work it.
Eschewing unrealistic modernity, apart from the digital counter, all
you get is the ability to tune one ATC channel; the only navaid you
get on this bird is what you can see over the side of the cockpit
coaming from the Mark 1 Eyeball and your compass. Oddly, the radio
panel itself in the both the FS9 and FSX versions does show plus and
minus hotspots to change the radio frequency, but these did not
appear to work when clicking on them with the mouse, forcing one to
resort to the FS ATC window for tuning. More quirky than annoying,
but worth noting all the same. With no transponder, you may have to
tweak the config file to add one if you fancy flying this on VATSIM
though, although since it is meant to be a VFR aircraft, that might be
a little odd
Watch your step ma’am…
The cockpit is not the only interior part of this aircraft – it was a passenger airliner after all – the passenger
compartment is fully modeled too. There is no menu preset to get you into the cabin however, you have to indulge in
Control+Shift with the Backspace and Enter keys to get you there. But it is worth the effort because what you find is a
good representation of the period interior of the B-40. There is a possible discrepancy here though.
I have read that B-40 cabins were lined with metal, although to be fair I have also seen pictures of them lined with
wood. What we have here is the latter option which to be fair, seems more evocative of the period and it is all properly
laid out with the staggered seating of the original. The real thing also featured a telephone apparatus with which the pilot
could inform his passengers of things such as preparation for landing, as he was otherwise completely out of touch from
them. Since we have no passengers to worry about we don’t have to think about that, although it has not been forgotten
on the aircraft cargo and payload menu which does accurately reflect the four passenger capacity of both the B4 and C
models, as well as the correct fuel and cargo capabilities of these variants.
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Opening the door from the interior
does a good job of conveying the
contortions usually involved in
boarding the cabin of a biplane,
although it appears surprisingly
roomy for the period
Modeling of the cabin interior is not
over the top, but is detailed enough
to make a quick trip into there for a
look through the windows when in
flight a novel experience. Don’t stay
there too long however, the B-40 has
no autopilot
All the cabin and cargo bay doors can be operated vie Control+E
Chocks away…
Cranking the thing up is a treat to the ears in either FS9 or FSX. The engine sounds and particularly the whine of the
starter mechanism is one that will have you turning the volume up. There’s a fair old bit of smoke when you start with
an impressive gout of flame out of the exhausts too, and it all promises a lot of fun in store.
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The picture doesn’t really do it
justice; the start up is a
wonderfully evocative affair. Just
get that battery switch off
quickly, as the B-40 runs out of
battery juice in record time
The sound of another era…
The sound is in fact one of the major plus points of this aircraft in FS; with performance similar to a Cessna or Piper in
terms of speed - about 140 knots flat out - but the lovely burbling sound of that Wasp radial as opposed to the drone of
a Lycoming flat four, the B-40’s soundtrack as you cruise over the countryside is one to savor and makes you think of all
those old movies you’ve seen with aeroplanes in them. Combine this with the excellent sideways panorama you get from
that open cockpit, especially if you use Track-IR, and you can see the attraction of the B-40. So if you like a bit of VFR in
FS and want something other than a typical modern spam can in which to do it, this is certainly one to consider.
Calling for clearance to taxi for the active on the simple radio brings you to the novelty of taxiing the B-40, with its
limited forward visibility. The real thing would of course probably not have had to taxi very far in its heyday, doubtless
doing little more than pointing into the wind and letting rip on a big field. The reality of this for biplanes these days, and
especially ones of this size, is that a pair of ‘wing walkers’ would be a sensible precaution.
Fortunately for us, we can indulge in a bit of external view cheating, although that’s not as necessary as you might
think; either shifting the cockpit view with the keyboard, or more entertainingly with Track-IR, it can be managed with
surprising ease and it does tend to give you that pioneering ‘rakish silk scarf’ type of feeling as you ready for take off.
It’s very stable on the gear too, so you can indulge yourself with those showy tail-swinging burst of throttle turns if you
wish, with little chance of scraping a wingtip. Feel free to dashingly stroke your Clark Gable-style moustache as you give
the ladies a playful yet heroic wave just before you open the throttle. You will feel like doing so too as the engine
cheerfully burbles and pops in a most convincing period manner.
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Leaning out of the cockpit makes the
B-40 surprisingly easy to steer. It’s
also great fun as far as detailing
goes; just visible in this shot you can
see the fuel gauge for the starboard
wing tank, located at the forward end
of the wing walkway, among the nice
touches and attention to detail, is the
fact that this actually works. Sticking
your head out of the cockpit also lets
you enjoy the way reflections of the
clouds play across the vast cowling in
front of you, and on the take off roll,
you can hear a most convincing
impression of those big tires on the
tarmac. It’s great stuff and makes
you wish all aeroplanes were like this
All action and no torque…
Despite the B-40 having a fairly hefty engine in real life, not to mention a massive propeller which I suspect wound make
for some pretty serious gyroscopic precession, one thing that is not much in evidence with the flight model of this FS
incarnation is propeller torque. I didn’t particularly find that very believable personally, of course I’ve never flown one of
these things in real life but I suspect at least some rudder correction would be necessary to keep it pointing down the
tarmac given that it was felt necessary to weld a bit of extra length into the fuselage when the real thing was tested out.
This overt stability on the roll was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s only one point of the flight model and if we are
talking extremes, I’d probably prefer it to be like that than to be some torque-laden nightmare that you couldn’t get into
the air at all without crashing half the time.
Still, what is not in the least bit disappointing is the throaty roar of that engine as you barrel down the runway, getting
the tail up so you can see where you are going without leaning out to look past the venturi tube for the instruments. As
you reach flying speed, this is where the thing does become much more convincing, climbing ponderously into the air
with a real feeling that you are in something that is hauling some weight – this is no sprightly Tiger Moth.
There’s not much to choose between the FSX and FS9 versions, either in looks or in flight modeling, but if I had to pick
one to go for I’d say choose the FSX version. This is not because the FS9 one lacks anything the FSX one has, but simply
because with the more convincing turbulence and air movement of FSX the B-40 seems a bit more believable as it bops
along on the unstable air of the newer sim. It’s still a fun thing in FS9 for all that.
Like the real thing, it does need a steady hand to keep it on course and the turbulence of FSX makes this more work
than is the case in FS9. All of the control surfaces seem believable in both sim versions though, with a ponderous roll
rate in spite of the dual ailerons and it creates a good impression of inertia befitting its size. That is not to say it is hard
to fly; providing you watch the RPM and cylinder head temperatures it is not much more difficult to drive than the default
FS Cessna. This might not be altogether realistic of course, but it does manage to convince you that it is what it
supposes to be when the occasional quirk combines with the audio and heavy feel of the controls. The real thing can
apparently have some issues with crossover speeds, but thankfully we don’t have to deal with that in this simulated
version.
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Notwithstanding the general ease with which it flies, if you take it for granted it can still jump up and bite you, especially
where engine management is concerned on the C variant. Abuse or ignore the cylinder head temperatures and you’ll be
looking at an engine fire. Although this stops short of turning your aircraft into a blazing comet, it will curtail your flight.
Abuse the engine with poor
management and you’ll be rewarded
with a sick and smoking engine which
will eventually seize up completely,
and the thing has about the same
glide ratio as a grand piano with the
power off, so watch out for that
Into the wild blue yonder…
Despite emulating the vintage of the real thing to a fairly large degree, it is nevertheless possible to get the B-40 up to a
respectable 14,000 feet without too much trouble if not carrying full fuel and ‘passengers’, although don’t expect to be
there in five minutes. But even at that lofty height, the challenge of flying over or around nasty weather is one that will
crop up on occasion.
Of course any higher than 14,000 feet and both you and that pre-supercharging era Wasp engine would be getting
extremely short of breath and it would struggle to get much higher, although I didn’t persist in seeing just how far it
could go, so maybe it could make it to 20,000 feet if you had an hour to spare in trying. But whatever the ultimate limit
is the ability to go well above 10,000 feet does mean that the B-40 can get above at least some bad weather.
In usability terms, there’s no doubt it is more than a mere historical novelty but is still something that can challenge
your skill at aviating with its limited instruments and navigation aids. So if you want to see how you’d stack up against
the likes of Lindbergh, here’s your opportunity to find out. Even leaving aside the historical interest of it, you’ll find it a
worthy addition to your virtual fleet as it makes an excellent VFR touring craft with its respectable endurance and speed,
plus great sideways and downwards visibility from the cockpit.
Skills from the old school…
Navigational challenges aside, another awaits you when it is time to come back down to terra firma. With that big
cowling stretching away in front of you, you’ll be looking at either a curved final approach or a sideslip. This makes
landing a challenge and a much more entertaining prospect than your Cessna can offer.
Thankfully, this simulated version of the B-40 is well able to perform a sideslip and although it is not quite akin to how
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the real thing apparently can be when indulging in a bit of cross-control shenanigans - as noted, crossover speeds can
apparently be marginal on the real thing - but it’s still enough of a challenge to provide some entertainment.
Sadly we don’t get the howling wires and windy complaining sigh most aircraft seem to exhibit when dropping in
sideways, but if you can forgive that auditory lapse then there’s plenty of fun to be had in mastering the techniques
necessary to pull off a landing with finesse and with a bit of practice you can land it so gently that you won’t even
believe you’ve touched down yet.
Hailing from the era when IFR stood
for, I Follow Roads; the B-40 was
truly innovative. Here you can see
me using the road as a guide to
indulge in a bit of side-slipping
practice, which is occasionally a
necessity for visibility on finals with
the cockpit set so far back
Not forgetting…
So, we have a fun aeroplane, two actually, with three different liveries and let’s not forget that we also get some scenery
too. For either FS9 or FSX, you get Alhambra Airport (KALH) in its 1930’s incarnation. This installs with the main aircraft
installation’s exe file. You do have to enable it manually in the FS scenery library, although this only takes a second or
two and is explained in the documentation in the unlikely event that you are unfamiliar with how to go about it.
Not to be confused with Hammock Field (7IS7) in the default FS which is located at Alhambra. The Alhambra Airport
scenery which comes with the Golden Age Simulations B-40 was located in a district of Los Angeles California, and no
longer exists in modern times. There is now a housing development and shopping mall where this airport used to be but
back in the 30’s and 40’s, Alhambra Airport was no mere convenient field. At one point it had the largest hangar in the
world, amongst other things. It was also famous for being the departure point for many Lockheed aircraft bound for
Britain in the early days of WW2. So it’s an interesting one for the history buffs.
The scenery of the airport is nice enough although certainly nothing to write home about. Having said that, it would be
churlish to look a gift horse in the mouth as it does provide an authentic backdrop for screenshots if nothing else. I
would regard it as a nice bonus rather than a reason to buy the B-40. I think the aircraft itself is reason enough on that
score.
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What is worth bearing in mind is that the many freebies to be found on the Golden Age Simulations website would
enable you to liven this scenery up considerably without too much effort so it need not remain as spartan as it appears in
these screenshots. Although we cannot see it very clearly in the screenshots I have included, the B-40 does occasionally
appear as an AI aircraft at this airfield too.
Period buildings at the 1930’s era
Alhambra Airport. The scenery is a
pleasant enough bonus, but nothing
to get excited about in its default
state
The grass strip at Alhambra Airport.
Just visible in the distance on the
extreme right, you can see that
another B-40 is on the airfield in
front of the grey building
Conclusion
There’s no doubt this is not a hardcore simulation of the real thing. It’s a little too easy to fly in trickier parts of the
envelope to make that claim, with it being almost impossible to stall or spin for one thing. But that does not make it
unworthy by any stretch of the imagination, quite the opposite in fact. There’s more than enough of a challenge to be
had from flying the thing even in spite of the omission of the real aircraft’s trickier foibles.
Simply getting from A to B in less than perfect weather with little in the way of navigational aids, whilst managing that
engine, means this is certainly an aerial gauntlet being thrown your way. So if you think you are half the aviator you
imagine yourself to be, this may well offer you the chance to prove it and see how you stack up against the aviation
pioneers of years gone by. It makes a great stable mate for the default JN-4 of FS9 if biplanes are your bag.
Beyond simply the challenge of getting there in one piece, the Golden Age Simulations B-40 boasts a good many things
to recommend about it, not least of which are the sounds, the effects and the lovely modeling job. It’s true the textures
could do with a little TLC but that is by no means an insurmountable issue and merely an observation of my own
preferences more than anything else.
I think for the price it is well worth considering if you are in the market for something of historical interest that is a little
different, in addition to being eminently usable as well as challenging. I would suggest however, that if you have both
FS9 and FSX that going for the FSX version would be the marginally wiser choice since it is friendly on frame rates (being
a genuine native FSX model) and can take advantage of the superior default modeling of the newer sim’s air mass to
offer a slightly more convincing feeling of flight.
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But either way I think it makes for an interesting insight into how Boeing started, and I do recommend the B-40 because
above all, it is great fun to fly.
Chocks away chaps…
What I Like About The B-40
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Great 3D model, with some nice special effects animations in both FSX and FS9
Fast on frames in FSX and blisteringly fast on frames FS9
Highly evocative and enjoyable sound set
Good panel with an authentic feel that presents a challenge for flying in the
modern era
Top notch documentation with interesting insights into the real aircraft
Good variety of models and paint jobs
Excellent VFR touring aircraft that can present further adventurous flying when the
weather gets rough
A lot of bang for your bucks
Genuine native FS9 and FSX package versions are available
Installation is simple and faultless in both version of FS
What I Don't Like About The B-40
●
●
Texturing is a little uninspired from a detailing standpoint, although the actual
liveries themselves are very pretty
Flight modeling could perhaps be a little more challenging for the hardcore types
Printing
If you wish to print this review or read it offline at your leisure, right click on the link below,
and select "save as"
Boeing B-40
(adobe acrobat required)
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Comments?
Standard Disclaimer
The review above is a subjective assessment of the product by the author. There is no connection between
the product producer and the reviewer, and we feel this review is unbiased and truly reflects the
performance of the product in the simming environment as experienced by the reviewer. This disclaimer is
posted here in order to provide you with background information on the reviewer and any presumed
connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party.
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