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Compatibility: Flight Simulator X This simulation presents the Spitfire Mk IV – DP845. Introduced in 1941, this variant of the Spitfire is powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon, producing 1,735 hp. Various modifications were made to accommodate this choice of engine including strengthening of the fuselage and the use of ‘blister’ fairings. Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Acceleration, Gold), FSX: Steam Edition or Lockheed Martin Prepar3D V1-V4 Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP (32-bit or 64-bit) 2.0 GHz or any Dual Core 2 GB RAM 1 GB graphics card 1.4 GB hard drive space Download-Size: 670 MB.
hilethe argument about which aircraft was the best fighter of the WorldWar II era will never be settled, there is no question in Britainabout which was the most evocative - it was the Spitfire. Whatmakes the type so special? Well, it was neither the fastest, northe most nimble, nor the toughest fighter to see combat andHurricane pilots shot down more enemy aircraft during the Battle ofBritain; but the Spit had a combination of qualities that no otherplane ever managed to match, at least in the opinion of thiswriter. Pilots respected the Hurricane, it was tough and it was anincredibly stable gun platform, but they loved the Spitfire. Withinour family we could once count two Wing Commanders, an AirCommodore and an Air Marshal, all of whom saw active service, andwhenever the name of R. J. Mitchell's classic design was mentioned,it always raised smiles and memories.
Barbara's uncle, Sir Paul Holder, won my prize for the bestanecdote. A few years before his death, he told me of a postwarfunction he attended at an RAF station in the company of WinstonChurchill. For some reason they had to walk several hundred yardsin the rain and this took them within a hundred yards of the gateguardian. To Paul's mute astonishment, Churchill veered away,walked through a broad puddle in his immaculately polished shoesand continued across the wet grass, just so he could give the tiredold Spitfire a pat. Then he returned and they walked on insilence.
'What was your worst moment?' the great man suddenly asked.
Paul thought for a minute - he had flown three tours in ShortStirlings and had been extremely lucky to survive the war. 'We wereattacked by two pairs of fighters in daylight once. I thought wehad really had it then. What about you?'
Churchill stopped and looked at Paul. 'When I asked Parkwhat our reserves were and he replied that we had none. That iswhen I realised how much our fate depended on schoolboy pilots andon inspired aeroplanes like that one, and how often politicianscount for rather less than we would like to think.'
The exchange in the Group Operations Room at Uxbridge has gonedown in history, thanks to Their Finest Hour, but Paulwasn't ashamed to say that watching the elderly Churchill payinghomage to that Spitfire brought a lump to his throat. Churchill'sstyle was often controversial, but he was an inspirational leader,and Paul told me that watching the old man ruin a pair of shoeswalking across the grass that night brought back vividly why he hadbeen so prepared to follow him into battle.
Paul is gone now, the sad thing being that my generation of thefamily learned more about his wartime career from his obituary inthe Times than we could ever have guessed from talking to him. Butthat story has always stuck with me.
CFS3 offers a choice of two different Spitfires, a mark IXc anda mark IXe. This brings us to yet another one of my family'sarguments, which is about which was the definitive mark of theSpitfire. The mark IX has a good claim to the title, not leastbecause more were built than any other variant except the mark V,which is ironic, considering the IX was never intended to be morethan a stop-gap. The mark IX was a mark V with the engine mountingand rear fuselage strengthened so that it could take the Merlin 61engine and in the end more than 5500 were built. The first examplesentered service in Spring 1942 and airframes served throughout therest of the war. There is no doubt that it was an extremelyeffective aircraft, because on Christmas day 1944, FlightLieutenant J.J. Boyle of the 411 Squadron RCAF shot down two Me262s while flying a mark IX. The 262 might have been fast, but itwas no match for the manoeuvrability of the Spit; something you candemonstrate for yourself if you set up a quick combat usingCFS3.
The a,b,c and e designations postfixed to Spitfire variantsoften cause puzzlement and refer to the type of armament theaircraft carried. The 'a' wing was fitted with 8 x 303 inch machineguns; the 'b' with 2 20 mm cannon and 4 x 303s; the 'c' with 4 x 20mm cannon; and the 'e' with 2 x 20 mm cannon and 2 x 0.5 inchmachine guns. Further confusion occurs because although the basicwing had a span of 36 foot 10 inches, the tips could be removed andreplaced with stub fairings; a process known as 'clipping', whichreduced the span to 32 foot 2 inches. In general, aircraft with lowaltitude rated engines (designated L.F.) had clipped wings, but notalways, though the high altitude (H.F.) Spits kept the tips. CFS3gives an L.F. Mk IXc and an L.F. Mk IXe, one of which has theclipped tips, which gained an extra 1 mph on the top speed and alsoimproved the rate of roll.
The distinguishing feature of the Spitfire, apart from the soundof its engine, was its elliptical wing. Very few planes were builtwith this planform, where the chord varies elliptically withdistance along the span, for the simple reason that howeveraerodynamically sound it might be, an ellipse brings some severeheadaches. Structural designers want lift sources concentrated nearthe wing root, to reduce bending moment and to allow tapering ofthe spar towards the tip in order to maintain constant bendingstress, and an elliptical wing upsets all their calculations.
There are a number of theoretical reasons for building planeswith elliptical wings, but it was proved long ago that such adesign can't achieve its aim of minimising induced drag unless itweighs virtually nothing, which accounts for its rarity. As ithappens, the Spit's elliptical planform was chosen not for itsvisual appeal, but for the prosaic reason that there was a pressingneed to increase section depth at mid-span in order to accommodatethe ammunition boxes and retractible gear. So are legends born.
Setting up a flight in CFS3 is remarkably easy, once youhave the program installed and the video settings set up - it isworth spending a little bit of time getting everything properlytweaked early on, because although the sim runs remarkablysmoothly, there is nothing worse than hitting stuttering just asyou are about to press the trigger on an elusive 262. I reviewedthe software on a 1.7 Ghz PIV with 512 Mb of RAM and a 128 MbGeForce 4 Ti 200, which allowed me to run with the sliders set tothe fourth of the five clicks available - most of the time. In oneto one high altitude combat in clear skies I could get away withthe sliders maxed, but I suspect that low level combat would meansacrificing some detail for speed. In practice, although the Gmaxmodels are drop dead gorgeous, when you are in a furball you don'ttend to concentrate on the reflective textures over much; so err onthe side of caution once you have done a gee-whiz look around. Ifthe sim stays fluid all the time, then you can start edging thosesliders up one at a time, but remember that you can't adjust themwhile you are flying!
Let's go fly - but first of all, let's give some appreciation tothis plane.
When Adolf Galland was asked by Goring for his opinion on theideal fighter, his famously deadpan answer was, 'Give me a squadronof Spitfires!' but for all Galland's respect for the type, theLuftwaffe never really got as much intelligence as they neededabout their famous adversary. In truth, compared to an Me109g, theSpit was 16 mph slower at sea level and 6 mph slower at 22000 feet,though the British plane had a better rate of climb, was moremanoeuverable and had a superior ceiling. The other advantage ithad over the Messerschmidt was that it didn't have slats; whilethese brought considerable advantages to the German fighter, theytended to snatch in high speed turns, which was not onlydistracting but also knocked the aircraft off line and spoiled thepilot's aim. In addition, the 109 was tiring to fly at high speeds,lacking as it did any form of rudder trim. By comparison, at normalloads, the Spitfire was very stable and easy to fly, with generousbuffet warning before the stall, at which the nose and a wingdropped relatively gently. The only other aircraft that comes inthe Spitfire's class is the Mustang, but we will be lost if westart debating that...
The flight models in CFS3 are a huge improvement on theprevious version and while they still give the impression that youcould learn to fly a Spitfire in 20 minutes, which clearly wasn'tthe case in reality, they are much more realistic than they mighthave been. Needless to say, Microsoft haven't captured everysubtlety of the aircraft and it is much easier to land than a realone (so they tell me) partly because there isn't twelve feet ofcowling blocking your view on the approach.
Spitfires and many other fighters of their generation had to belanded either from a sideslip, or from a long continuous turn sothat the pilot could see ahead; and taxiing involved the standardtaildragger trick of weaving the nose to clear a sightline.Accidents weren't uncommon, and the outward retractingundercarriage of the Spitfire made the ground handling even moreproblematic by condemning it to a narrow wheel track. Even if youonly do it the one time, make sure you fly an approach and landingin the Spitfire, because Microsoft have got this part just right -and it isn't easy!
Apart from the fantastic new Gmax models, a new feature of CFS3is the ability to customise planes by adding nose art, alteringspinner colors and even adding IDs. There is a wide choice offictional RAF squadron badges, plus a slew of other national logos,including Free French and Canadian badges, so it is possible todress a plane up to look the part for the Me 262 engagement, forexample. For some reason, you can only select one letter IDs, so itisn't possible to reproduce the three letter RAF originals, but Iam sure that it is only a matter of time before third partydevelopers crack that one. Having played around with it for awhile, CFS3 is the natural home for many warbirds which wouldpreviously have been developed for FS2002 - I would be interestedto see what RCS Simulations do with their upcoming packages, forexample. While we are on the subject, it would be great to see BlueArrow/JustFlight's Dambusterspackage updated to CFS3 standard, because it would be even moreenjoyable on the new version than it is in CFS2.
There is a wide selection of air bases available in CFS3, spreadover five countries: the UK, Belgium, France, Holland and Germany.I counted over 70 airfields in the UK alone, so there should beenough for anyone. Whether the layouts are accurate or not isanother thing entirely, generic buildings are certainly much inevidence and I didn't spot many of the classic triangular runwaylayouts that so date British airfields of the period. But theground visuals are a vast improvement on CFS2 and there is plentyof opportunities for enhancements. CFS3 offers far more to thirdparty developers than its predecessors ever did and I am sure wewill see some impressive scenery add-ons - Duxford and Biggin Hillbeing obvious choices. Oh, and before I forget, CFS3 has dinkylittle AI vehicles that are incredibly satisfying to shoot up onlow passes, providing you don't hit all the AutoGen surroundingthem. I had a hard time weaving through the trees a couple oftimes.
As Mad Max hinted earlieron, Microsoft have gone to considerable lengths to stop cheatingonline, which will hopefully stop kids stooging around in hackedplanes, though why people find that kind of thing fulfilling, Ihave no idea. An improved damage model puts paid to tricks likeextending a click of flap in combat - you can do more damage toyour own plane than the enemy if you ignore the limit speeds. Atext line warns you of approaching stalls, but apart from that youare on your own in flight, unless you enable autorudder andautomixture and choose the easy flight model. By way ofcompensation, the online manual has been greatly extended andincludes sections on performance and tactics for each aircraft, aswell as their strengths and weaknesses. There is a long section oncombat manoeuvering, which is required reading, since going aroundin tight circles ain't a good option any more.
I still haven't quite got to grips with the tactical display,which makes it a cinch to select ground targets but kind of toughto select planes. But the only way to play this game is to switchoff all the extras and fly it the way it was meant to be - usingyour eyes to spot the enemy. Sure, you will spend time chasing yourown wingmen, and the enemy can be frustratingly hard to spot, butthat is how it was in reality. It is unbelievable how well aircraftblend into the sky and they just vanish against the ground in thereal world.
The virtual cockpit reigns supreme in CFS3, the only concessionbeing that you can use the scroll lock key to restrict it to eightfixed views - panning around in combat being a no-no, unless youhave perfect three-dimensional memory and can fly forward whilelooking backward. The payback is that you can't adjust anything inthe cockpit by clicking on it and interaction with the panels isrestricted to the keyboard and joystick; which means that a lot ofthe features of the planes is lost. On a real mark IX, thepropellor speed control was interconnected with the throttlecontrol, though this could be overridden if necessary - but if youfly the CFS3 plane, all of this is hidden from the player, as isthe necessity for manually changing the supercharger gearingsetting if normal climbing power (2850 rpm and +12 boost) is beingused rather than full combat power. Okay, so most users just wantto charge furiously around the skies blasting each other, but therewas an opportunity here to recreate cockpits in fine detail andMicrosoft seem to have passed it by. Maybe in CFS4?
The sound is the weakest part of CFS3. Having listened to manyreal Merlins over the years and having been treated to someexcellent FS2002 sound sets from third party developers, hearingthe roar of Rolls Royce's best reduced to an anaemic backgroundchunter was disappointing, but it didn't detract from the action,especially when I was trashing 262s at Angels 15. They aren't thateasy to hit, by the way; old J.J. must have had his wits abouthim.
So how does CFS3 compare to IL2? I am sure that there will be asmany opinions on this as there are people to voice them, butcracking game though it is, I have always found IL2 just a littletwo dimensional, chiefly because of the way it has been so brutally(and effectively) organised for seamless air combat. The CFS3 teamhave clearly spent a lot of time using IL2 and I am sure that themajority of readers will notice a faint resemblence between thetwo, but where CFS3 scores is that it offers virtually infiniteopportunities for expansion and the terrain and scenery is muchmore realistic. Faced with the glorious skies of the Ubisoft game,Microsoft have thrown away CFS2's sky altogether and have dealt ina set that puts FS2002 to shame, with all the strengths and none ofthe peculiarities of the latter game's clouds. This is one of theplaces where CFS3 takes the initiative and exploits thecapabilities of modern graphics cards to the full - having justbought a GeForce4 I can honestly say that it is worth making theinvestment. The IL2 planes may be wonderful to look at, but theirCFS3 counterparts are better and anyone who makes a dawn flight hadbetter take some time out to admire the lighting effects on theiraircraft, because they are something to see. I can tell that theIL2 people won't leave CFS3 unchallenged.
Am I enjoying CFS3? Yes, I am, in case you haven't worked it outalready. CFS2 was OKish, but this version blows its predecessoraway and while I have a few niggles here and there, it delivers thegoods, and how. There is a fantastic range of planes to choosefrom, and while it is disappointing that bombers areunder-represented, given the feature which allows you to swap togunner positions, I am sure that the third party developers arealready burning the midnight oil to fill the gap. We can lookforward to some fantastic expansion packs over the next couple ofyears, but even if you can only afford the base CFS3 package, Iguarantee you won't be disappointed.
Next - the Mosquito.
Andrew Herd[email protected] Other CFS3 Review PartsCombat FlightSimulator 3 - The LuftwaffeComments are closed.
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