The VFW Fokker 614 was designed as a short-haul airliner, capable of using short and rough runways. The idea was to sell it to 3rd world countries with poor infrastructure. So landing gear and tires are a bit oversized, to deal with soft ground, and the engine nacelles where mounted on top of the wings, which enabled shorter gear struts and less risk of getting dirt from the ground into the engines. As a side effect, downward noise emission during flight was significantly reduced, and the airflow above the wings lead to more efficient aerodynamics.
Though the VFW 614 was an outstanding aircraft with great flight capabilities and new technologies, which can be found in the Airbus models of today, it was not a commercial success. Apart from a few airlines, Deutsche Luftwaffe (German Air Force) became the major operator, providing transport service to high ranking government and military personal. One unit was used by Airbus and another by DLR (the German "NASA") as research and test aircraft and even as a flying flight simulator, testing the Airbus A380 fly-by-wire system long before the first A380 was built.
Peters Aircraft spent over a full year developing this aircraft!
This model is a precise digital replica of the VFW 614, which is conserved in the Aeronauticum Museum, Nordholz, Germany, based on Hundreds of photographs taken there, and on many authentic documents, as well as on testimonies of people who had been involved in construction and operation of the VFW 614
- Extremely detailed simulation of all flight relevant systems of the civil airliner, plus a few of the military version
- Authentic liveries of all airlines which operated the VFW 614, and Luftwaffe
- Highly detailed 3D exterior model, 3D cockpit and full cabin interior
- Animated doors
- Internal and external lights supporting HDR lighting
- Predefined walk around commands, which don’t let you penetrate walls and closed doors
- Ultra realistic old style round custom gauges. No default X-Plane instruments
- Auto-pilot with pitch & roll modes, as well as HDG, LAT NAV (incl. ILS), IAS, ALT HOLD, G/S, BC, TURB modes.
- Thrust in „percent of max. available“ indicators, which have to be adjusted to ambient temperature. A very similar feature has the A380 of today!
- Weather radar
- Copies of original manuals and technical documentation with description of the real systems and procedures are part of the package
- A QuickStart manual facilitates your first flight
The X-Plane® model - based on a real 614 aircraft
All flight-related systems are fully functional, the cockpit and interior are highly detailed. Animated doors and predefined walkarounds let you experience the aircraft; you enter via the door steps, walk into the cockpit or passenger cabin, continue into the galley, and even into the toilet! - A model for X-Plane could hardly be more complete!
Flying is still a manual job! Conventional instruments, especially those used for navigation, the contemporary autopilot, the absence of autothrust and FBW require the pilot to have knowledge and skills that are still part of basic training today, but are hardly ever used in modern everyday flying. This VFW 614 simulation is a real challenge!
The 3D cockpit shows and simulates all flight relevant systems, which were installed on the civil airliners, with a high degree of authenticity. Two of the developer team traveled three times to the Aeronauticum museum, to explore their conserved VFW 614, and to shoot hundreds of photos.
Authentic Cockpit
The panel is filled up with traditional round instruments, all carefully rebuilt after the real ones, not using any default XP instruments. Pressurization is controlled manually. So you should not forget the settings! - Some of the special instruments mounted on the military version are also installed. Due to a total lack of respective documentation we were unable to make them alive.
The autopilot from the 1970s basically uses pitch and roll mode. In XP the nose-wheel tiller axis controls the roll angle, as soon as engaged, while the landing gear is retracted. It's really fun to fly this way! But also HDG, LAT NAV, ALT HOLD, and GS modes are available, as well as Backcourse and Turbulence modes. Certainly ILS approaches are supported. The aircraft was not approved for autoland.
Cabin Interior
It's the first time ever that Peters Aircraft modeled a complete passenger cabin, with cut out windows and animated doors. You may enter and leave the aircraft and move forward and backward in predefined ways, which don't let you go through walls, closed doors and seats. You can always pause the movement, look around or take a seat... All you have to do is assign a few custom commands to keys. We finally fell so much in love with the results, that we decided to continue on this route...
Extensive Documentation
A short quick-start manual makes it easy to get started. Original manuals and technical brochures are included in the package. They are a treasure in themselves!
You'll get the original Flight Handbook and Flight Training Manual, plus four other authentic documents with system description and more. For this reason our own manual just provides basic Quick Start instructions, so you need not study the almost Thousand pages of the authentic manuals, before you can go for a first flight. But if you are keen to understand all the instruments and systems in detail, you'll have the same source of information at hand, which real VFW 614 pilots were using. -
Thanks…!
A great THANK YOU! to the staff of the impressive Aeronauticum museum, located in Nordholz, just a few kilomenters south of Cuxhaven, Germany. They supported this project immensely. • https://www.aeronauticum.de
More pictures here
