- Bombardier Q-series turboprops. (Formerly deHavilland Canada Dash-8 series) These are extremely popular on short-haul routes to smaller markets in the U.S. With fuel prices skyrocketing, these will become even more popular due to their fuel efficiency. Frontier Airlines recently launched a subsidiary (Lynx Aviation) flying exclusively Q400s to smaller cities, and Horizon Air recently announced that they will retire all their CRJ regional jets and Q200 turboprops in favor of an all-Q400 fleet. The Flight1 ATR is a reasonable substitute for this plane, but the Q400 has a substantially longer range than the ATR 72. Horizon actually runs Q400s on nonstop flights between PDX and LAX, for example.
- Embraer 120 "Brasilia" turboprops. These are also quite popular in the U.S. for short-haul routes to smaller cities. I understand the fuselage is very similar to Embraer's ERJ-135 regional jet in terms of size.
- Continuing with the turboprop theme, how about a Saab 340? While these were discontinued a few years ago, several major U.S. airlines still use them to serve smaller markets.
- I would love to see some of the Russian-made planes, such as the Ilyushin Il-96 or the Tupolev Tu-204. I know these aren't flown much in the west, although Cubana actually routinely flies a Tu-204 over the eastern U.S. between Havana and Toronto. I think it would be very interesting to try out some Russian aircraft, at any rate.
- How about a good CRJ model, similar to Wilco's ERJ-145 PIC?
- I would love a detailed simulation of the Airbus A300/A310 series. CLS has a nice, basic version of these, but they lack advanced features such as the FMC. American Airlines actually still flies A300s between New York and various Caribbean destinations. A300s and A310s are still widely used in many parts of the world, as well. UPS and FedEx also seem to like them as cargo freighters. They only went out of production in 2007, with Airbus directing customers to the A330 as a direct replacement now.
- How about a good Boeing 727-200 for FSX? These have fallen out of vogue as passenger airliners in the U.S., but FedEx still likes them a lot as smaller cargo freighters. Is Dreamfleet planning to update their 727 for FSX, by any chance?
- I think a DC-8 for FSX would be fun as well. UPS still likes the DC-8 "Super 70s" as cargo planes, in spite of the fact that DC-8s have not been widely used as passenger planes for many years now. This sounds like the type of project somebody like CLS would take on.
Monday, June 23, 2008
FSX Airplane Wish List
Last, but not least, I would love to see a few more add-on planes for FSX:
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