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Release Review : WW1 Fokker Dr.1 by Aerobask


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release Review : Fokker Dr.1 by Aerobask

On December 17th 1903, The Wright brothers in the "Wright Flyer" created history in flying successfully the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft. For the first few years of heavy than air aviation the progress was rapid, but still relegated to the basics of flight. WW1 (World War One) 1914-1918 changed all that and machines were quickly required to be used to get an advantage over the badly stalled ground warfare. Airships were the first tools of war for the moveable aerial conflicts, but these suspended gas bombs were slow and venerable to a new type of machine...  The Fighter.

If you have one fighter shooting down airships, then you would need another faster more manoeuvrable fighter to shoot down the fighter that was causing the havoc in the first place and so the famous Fokker Dr.1 was born.

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The interesting point is the complete evolution from the Wright brothers concepts to this point of the aircraft design as a standard layout. These new generation of aircraft were so advanced and in reality created the design and template of aircraft as we know it today.

So now from Aerobask is another aircraft from left field in the Fokker Dr.1 tri-plane. Aerobask are already known for spinning out really different and interesting aircraft for the X-Plane simulator, and this exceptional WW1 fighter is certainly no different.

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The Fokker Dr.1 is of course famously associated with the "Red Baron" or Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen as his full title and his record was to have killed or captured—73 of the 80 listed recorded British losses attributed to his flying skills. The real number is noted above the 100 kills, but that number never completely documented. His last 19 victories were in the Dr.1.

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Sophisticated for its period, this Fokker Dr.1 is no F/A 18 Hornet...  But the design is extremely good by Aerobask and has certainly done this amazing aircraft justice. Instruments are basic as in very basic, but all are very well reproduced for the era, and include an animated cup anemometer, altimeter, fuel gauge and fuel regulator with Fuel tap, Cardan' compass and RPM indicator and also featured is a magneto with mag start and a oil pulsator.

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The two 2 × 7.92 mm (.312 in) "Spandau" lMG 08 machine guns are authentic and do fire.

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Lots of clever features include the open or shrouded standard detailed 110 h.p. Oberursel URII air-cooled engine.

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Three pop-up menus include a compass, settings (Game Mode, Music, Motor Casing and green or red navigation lights) and a great start the engine via spinning the propeller feature.

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Three liveries are included and are: Red Baron, Camo, Stripes and White Raven

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A quick flight notes the Fokker is a really easy and a surprisingly nice aircraft to fly, with great flight modeling that is good even for a tail-dragger. Great documentation and manual is included with great tips on how to set up WW1 dogfights in X-Plane.

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Summary

Flying a World War 1 fighter has got to be a different X-Plane experience and this aircraft certainly fills out that aspect. It is an interesting aircraft because the instruments available to you are so very basic, but also quite challenging to use and navigate.

Flying the Fokker is also very unusual. The Tri-Plane lift is enormous, you go almost vertical with a only a little speed on the ground, so it takes some skill to fly correctly at slow speeds (taking off and landing) but in the air the machine is amazingly really nice to fly and balance, and it is surprisingly fast for its day.

Aerobask has done some excellent great period detailing on the aircraft and it feels and flies with a very authentic feel, and great little details like the pilot's scarf is animated and flows in the slipstream, sounds are also very authentic and pretty soon you will enjoy swooping around and firing on ferries (sorry about that) or the X-Plane deer on the ground.

If you love X-Plane then you like to know you could fly anything, well no doubt that Aerobask is going to challenge that theory a little bit more here, but the Fokker Dr.1 is a great historic aircraft, and flying a very well created version of history is always going to be a little fun, and that is this aircraft...  a lot of fun.

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The Fokker Dr.1 by Aerobask is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here :

Fokker Dr.1 Priced at US$19.95

Features:

Ultra-High Resolution Model
  • High quality modeled with HD textures (4K). Fully animated virtual 3D cockpit
  • Many modeled instruments 
    • cup anemometer
    • altimeter
    • fuel gauge and fuel regulator - Fuel tap
    • magneto, mag start,  oil pulsator
    • Stick with blip switch
    • 'Cardan' compass
    • RPM indicator
  • Functional Spandau machine gun
  • Custom sounds : Engine and start, airflow, rolling ground and touch, machine gun, etc...
  • 3D surround effect : engine, start and airflow
  • 3 Pop-Up menu: options, start & movable pop-up compass
  • Optional custom lights for multiplayer mode (dogfight)
Refined Flight Model
  • Flight model by  X-Aerodynamics (Cameron Garner )
  • Simulated gyroscopic effect
High-Resolution Liveries
  • 5 HD liveries (4K textures)
  • Normal map

Requirements:

X-Plane 10.45+ in 64bit mode

Windows 7+, Mac or Linux. 64bit Operating System
2Gb+ VRAM
Current version: 1.03 (last updated May 20th 2016)
 

Installation and documents:

Download for the Fokker Dr.1 is 376.30meg and the unzipped file deposited in the Aircraft X-Plane folder at 443.80mb.

Manual included is excellent with a long aircraft history and facts, features and how to get the best of flying a WW1 aircraft with X-Plane keyboard shortcuts and great instructions on how to use the featured instruments.

Release Review by Stephen Dutton
 
21st May 2016
 
Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

Review System Specifications:

Computer System: Windows  - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 8 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD 

Software:   - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45

Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose  Soundlink Mini - small fan for authentic in the face cockpit air.

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