Stephen Posted June 8, 2023 Report Share Posted June 8, 2023 Scenery Review : KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim My first visit to a StarSim scenery was the impressive KSTL - St. Louis Lambert International Airport for X-Plane 11. This is the followup for StarSim in scenery, this time it is for Philadelphia International Airport or PHL. The scenery is X-Plane 12 compatible (features), but the X-Plane 11 version is included in the package as well. Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 9.8 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located 7 miles (11 km) from the city's downtown area and caters for 22 airlines that offer nearly 500 daily departures to more than 130 destinations worldwide. The PHL airport has service to cities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. Most of the airport property is in Philadelphia proper. The international terminal and the western end of the airfield are however in Tinicum Township, Delaware County. PHL covers 2,302 acres (932 ha) and has four runways. Starting in 1925, the Pennsylvania National Guard used the present airport site (known as Hog Island) as a training airfield. The site was dedicated as the "Philadelphia Municipal Airport" by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, but it had no proper terminal building until 1940; airlines used Camden Central Airport in nearby Pennsauken Township, New Jersey. Once Philadelphia's terminal was completed (on the east side of the field) American, Eastern, TWA, and United moved their operations here. In 1947 and 1950 the airport had runways 4, 9, 12 and 17, all 5,400 feet (1,600 m) or less. In 1956 runway 9 was 7,284 feet (2,220 m); in 1959 it was 9,499 feet (2,895 m) and runway 12 was closed. Not much changed until the early 1970s, when runway 4 was closed and 9R opened with 10,500 feet (3,200 m). Philadelphia International Airport IATA: PHL-ICAO: KPHL-FAA LID: PHL-WMO: 72408 8/26 - 5,001ft (1,524m) Asphalt 9L/27R - 9,500ft (2,896m) Asphalt 9R/27L -12,000ft (3,658m) Asphalt 17/35 - 6,500ft (1,981m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL36 ft / 11 m KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim Philadelphia International Airport sits directly on the Delaware River, situated by one of the most historically significant cities in the United States, as Philadelphia served as the nation's capital until 1800. PHL distance views on approach are really quite good... as the autogen is very condensed and frames the airport, the Philadelphia skyline is also nicely framed in the distance. In closer to the field, I like the texture feel in describing the ground, no 3d grass though, but the ground visual detail is very good. The Delaware River frames one side of the airport (X-Plane 12 water), on the opposite side however you can easily see the custom texture join, worse is over the water section as it hasn't been cut out, so the overall view is not very pretty on the eye? Another point is the George C. Platt Memorial Bridge is not represented either, the blue structure should have been highly visible on the Rwy 26/27L/27R approaches on the right, a big omission from StarSim to the area detail. There is the option to use custom mesh (e.g. Alpilotx HD mesh) or ortho-scenery (e.g. VStates) in the same DSF tile. You can do so by using MUXP. The necessary patch file and mesh data are both included in the scenery. Overall the scenery is well placed and looks very realistic in the X-Plane 12 environment. Philadelphia International Airport has six terminals, and ten concourses with a total of 126 gates. Non pre-cleared international arrivals are processed in Terminal A. American operates Admirals Clubs in Terminal A, the B/C connector and Terminal F. Terminal A also contains a British Airways Galleries Lounge as well as a American Express Centurion Lounge. Terminal D contains a United Club as well as a Delta Sky Club. A USO lounge is located in Terminal E. The airport layout is Terminal A (left), Terminal B-C, Terminal D-E and Terminal F (upper right), with nine concourses. Terminal A- Terminal A is split into A-West (concourse) and A-East Concourse. Opened in 2003 as the new international terminal, it is now home to American (domestic and international), British Airways, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways. Admittedly, the StarSim St. Louis Lambert airport was only average in the terminal modeling, it showed. Here at PHL it is a very different story, in fact it doesn't even feel like it is the same developer style, as the terminal design is very, very good... the glass/windows are all very "shiny, shiny", but overall the layout from StarSim is excellent, I like it all very much. Concourse A-West is a very unorthodox design for a International pier, slab-sided and not much glass area, but well done here... Concourse A-East is more traditional and probably the most detailed and the most authentic concourse at KPHL. A East was originally the airport's main international terminal, is now used by Aer Lingus and American domestic and international flights as well as international arrivals for Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. Hence the different look and feel, It looks excellent. The skylounge detail (it isn't a skylounge, but just looks like one) is traditional in style and the standout feature of the terminal. Roof detailing is very good. Glass is see-through and there is a semi-internal fitout, with just seating and mostly placed there for the external view. All gates have SAM3 (Scenery Animation Manager) interaction (plugin required). The airbridge detail is excellent, but no branding except for concourse D (Delta) and E (Southwest). Clutter around the ramps is again far better than St.Louis, and better arranged as well, but there is no ramp activity, or animated moving service vehicles. Landside Terminal A is very detailed, with arrival elements very well done and animated car traffic. Internally there are "basic" check-in areas, custom check points and seating. The Overseas Terminal originally housed all the international airlines at Philadelphia. It was opened in 1973 and the building was a converted hangar. It was later replaced by the Terminal A complex in 1991. Terminal B/C Like Terminal A, Terminal B/C is a twin concourse pier. Terminals B and C have 15 and 14 gates respectively. They are also the two main terminals used by American. They were renovated at a cost of $135 million in 1998, which was designed by DPK&A Architects, LLP. They are connected by a shopping mall and food court named the Philadelphia Marketplace. They are the oldest terminals at PHL, and the original facility was opened way back in 1953. Design wise Concourses B/C are identical... B Concourse doglegs left and C Concourse doglegs right, as in a mirror. Gate assignments for Terminals B & C are: American / American Eagle - Gates B1-B16 & Gates C17-C31. StarSim's design is very good, nice modeling and great detail with the well done corrugated panel design, certainly with the detailed patchwork roof. And the internal details can be seen externally through the shiny windows. There is the excellent "Welcome to Philadelphia" signage and the well done SAM long arm airbridge on ramp C17. There is a ramp tower above Concourse B, and the terminal frontage in glass is well presented... but there is this overall feel of a bit of a sterile environment, and not a busy, busy active airport atmosphere, airside is quite dead in this instance. Terminal B/C Landside is excellent, great detail, and the full arrival floor internally is represented. Terminal D In reality Terminal D shares the same Terminal building as E (or concourse E) like with Terminal B/C. Terminal D has 16 gates, and it was opened in 1973. The terminal was upgraded in late 2008 with a new concourse connecting to Terminal E while providing combined security, a variety of shops and restaurants and a link between Baggage Claims D and E. Concourse D has a slightly different (darker) window style, and corrugated paneling, but well done here. Note the clocks that are positioned above the airbridges, and yes they actually work... a great detail. Terminal D is home to Air Canada, Delta, Spirit, United and Jetblue. The complex detail between Terminals B/C and D/E is expertly done here, in the amalgamation of building styles, note the flags which are all nicely animated. The Terminal has a large dark green glass facade, not as shiny as the earlier facades and so it all works better, the same D (E) Terminal design is also reflected landside, and the detailed (design) is excellent. Terminal E Terminal E has 17 gates. It is home to Alaska Airlines (check-in only, departures from D6), Frontier, Spirit, JetBlue (check-in only as of 2022), and Southwest. It opened in 1977. Terminal E houses a USO lounge available for all members of the military and their family. Again you have a different pier style with Concourse E. It has a Semi-Rounded glass end with a circular light atrium above. Roof detail are image textures with 3d objects, but it works in detail. I really like the oversized large gate numbers with "Philadelphia" noted below. Although connected together. Terminal E is separated on the landside. Again the detail is excellent, with internal details and more over shiny windows. Terminal F Terminal F has 38 gates. The terminal is a regional terminal used by American Eagle and Contour Airlines flights. It includes special (set lower) jet bridges that allow passengers to board regional jets without walking on the apron. Opened in 2001, Terminal F is the second newest terminal building at PHL. It was designed by Odell Associates, Inc. and The Sheward Partnership. An American Airlines Admirals Club is located above the central food court area of Terminal F. Terminal F is sprawling huge complex, that would have any regional operator drooling at the mouth. I personally love these facilities, and this is a very good one to use here at PHL with any ERJ. Walk-on/Walk-off is excellent as are those usable lower set SAM airbridges. Internal detail is done as well on all the finger piers... Landside arrival is small as the actual terminal in central to the complex, note the huge ramp tower just for this regional aircraft area. Just south, and at the end of the terminal area is a very nicely done American Airlines regional maintenance hangar, very authentic with a tired worn facade. Landside Very impressive is landside. Each terminal has it's own designated carpark. Parking garage A-West, Parking garage A-East, Parking Garage B, Parking Garage C and so on... and each massive carpark facility is well represented here. Detail and complexity of the area is excellent, as a lot of time and effort has been spent here to get the visual effect right, and it works... The Philadelphia Airport Marriott between garages B and C is well represented, as are the excellent car-rental zones for Avis, Budget, dollar, National, Alamo and Hertz car-rental, all are well designed and laid out, there a few photo (car) burn-ins, but overall it is very well done The SEPTA Regional Rail's Airport Line service is also a featured highlight here, as the train is of high-quality modeling and it covers the whole of the scenery in action (in and out of all the airport stations)... impressed. Notable is that all road traffic signage is also excellent, and all individually created for that particular road sign... Control Tower(s) The AA “Hub Control Center” (Control Tower) has a dominating view over PHL airport, it is 22 stories, and 196-foot high. But, this isn’t the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control tower. The FAA occupies a much less impressive tower across the field from this one. Instead, the tallest and largest tower at PHL belongs to American Airlines to coordinate the ramps, so with 70% of the traffic at PHL, American Airlines has quite the say over the airport... Impressive it is, as the AA Tower detail is really well done, note the rear stair windows. The FAA facility is buried over the other side of PHL field, and yes as you can guess in that the X-Plane "Tower View" is set on the wrong tower! Cargo There is a huge sprawling area to the west. It has three major areas in the "Philadelphia Cargo City" facility, "American Airlines Maintenance" and the "International Plaza" complex. Cargo Facilities at PHL are located to the west of Terminal A-West, directly adjacent to the airfield. Buildings C-2 through C8 make up approximately 600,000 square feet of cargo tenant space. Tenants include Southwest Airlines, American Airlines Cargo, United Airlines Cargo, Delta Cargo and FedEx. Set behind Cargo City is the large "International Plaza" complex, again very well represented here by StarSim. Further west is the massive American Airline maintenance facility, both buildings and surrounding areas are nicely and highly detailed. Across the field to the south boundary on the Delaware, is another huge cargo complex, this time it is for UPS Parcel Services. To the east, there is a small FBO (Fixed Base Operator) Terminal run by Atlantic Aviation, just really a receiving facility, but recently renovated! Notable is the missing areas behind the FBO. Here in real life there is a DoubleTree Hilton, Four Points Sheraton, Sheraton Suites hotels, Skychefs facility and another Fuel depot. So this significant blank area is highly noticeable on the eastern side approaches. Ground Textures The ground textures are very much like the real surfaces, because they are.... most of the textures are photo based, and it really shows in areas because of all the zaggy lines on the texture surfaces? It is sadly noticeable from the cockpit (cabin) and so not very authentic. In many areas hard lines have been overlayed the photo versions, thankfully this does help with the taxiway/runway context. That said, the photographic elements do make the surfaces look good in detail, and the surface roughness is quite good as well. As noted the in-field grass is photo, and looks really good, but no 3d grass makes it all very flat at ground level, another badly missed opportunity for making the scenery a higher graded environment. The grass edges are also quite noticeable in being all very straight lines. This is X-Plane 12, and so you have all the exciting X-Plane 12 weather features available here at PHL, but sadly they are not available in the X-Plane 11 version that comes with the package. Wet conditions, standing water, icy conditions and snow are all available, and are all excellent. But note again the straight or curved hard lines of the snow boundaries to the asphalt, not very realistic. Lighting I wasn't too impressed with StarSim's St Louis Airport lighting. Here again at Philadelphia it is also a bit on the average side. Approach and runway lighting is very good, as is the complex road network that surrounds the northern boundary of PHL. There is an over-reliance on small spot lighting in the scenery, so you get both lit and dark areas, right next to each other and no covering light spread. You can get away with small spotlighting with infrastructure areas like Fuel Depots and Carparks, but not for the larger active areas like the landside arrival zones, which are all very, very dark here. Ramp lighting is orangy dull, with not a lot of distance spread, and it is dark down there working at night? In a few areas the lighting does look highly realistic, like the Cargo City entrance, and the International Plaza window lighting is also more realistic as well But a lot of the window lighting still relies on that bland FlightSim grey look, including the Marriott Airport Hotel. Thankfully the logo signage is all very well lit. Car-rental zones are again a highlight, brightly lit, they shine out of the darkness... that said you could still add in a far more wider coverage area to cover the darker spots. Surrounding road infrastructure looks very nice at night, and the airport needed to balance into that extensive lighting better... Airport navigation signage is fine, but there are no ground reflecting lighting effects from the signs. _______________ Summary Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport is located 7 miles (11 km) from the city's downtown area and caters for 22 airlines that offer nearly 500 daily departures to more than 130 destinations worldwide. Philadelphia International Airport sits directly on the Delaware River, situated by one of the most historically significant cities in the United States, as Philadelphia served as the nation's capital until 1800. StarSim's first scenery was the impressive KSTL - St. Louis Lambert International Airport for X-Plane 11. This is the followup scenery for StarSim in Philadelphia International Airport or PHL. This scenery is X-Plane 12 compatible (features), but the X-Plane 11 version is included in the package as well. Philadelphia International Airport is a massive airport with six terminals, nine concourses with a total of 126 gates, and an extensive cargo area, so this is a substantial project for any developer. In modeling terms it is great achievement, as each terminal and concourse comes from a different era, hence slightly different style, and so you get a real feel for Philly airport in the scenery, the landside areas are also well done, with all the internal concourse areas visible from the external. All gates are active with SAM3 (Scenery Animation Manager) including the lo-riser Terminal F regional facility, Long-arm C17 gate and C gates have arrival boards and D gates have working clocks. West has the extensively detailed Cargo City, American Airlines maintenance and International Plaza complex which are are all represented. Landside is excellent with all the six massive carparks, and central Marriott Hotel included. Car-rental areas are extensively done and the highlight is the finely-modeled and the well animated SEPTA Regional Rail's Airport Line service, the UPS facility and FAA tower are also well done on the south Delware River boundary. Road Signage is custom and excellent. Minuses, are the average lighting, with too much reliance of spot lights, poor coverage and tone, zaggy image lines and burn-ins in the ground textures. Markedly there is a sterile feel to the ramp areas with no service traffic (plenty of traffic on landside). Poor texture blending (including textures over a lake) on the north scenery boundary... But my main beef is the missing awareness of the significant blue George C. Platt Memorial Bridge, which is not represented on the eastern approach to the airport, a few fuel depot tanks in the same area would not go amiss in for filling in a deserted Bellwether area on the same 27L-27R and 26 approaches. And the missing significant Hilton, Sheraton hotels and the Skychef facility on the north apron. Overall this is a significant representation of Philadelphia International Airport from StarSim, a few wobbles, but overall a very worthy and extensive scenery of this expansive scenery, certainly a huge step forward in quality and detail for the developer StarSim, and it all comes across as really great value for the price. Certainly a must have for any U.S. East coast network, and another great scenery addition to X-Plane 12. Recommended! ____________________________ Yes! the KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport Price is US$24.00 Features: Accurate and highly detailed recreation of PHL Fully modeled interior for all seven terminals High-resolution PBR texturing for ground and objects Animated custom jetways, SEPTA train as well as road and airport traffic Realistic custom Mesh High-quality (3in/7.6cm per pixel) Orthoimagery Custom road network Accurate 2023 airport layout Optimized for X-Plane 12 and its new features (compatible with X-Plane 11 too) Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 3.56 GB Current and Review version : 1.0 (May 19th 2023) Installation and documents: PHL is download of 3.56Gb download. There are three folders as part of the installation; KPHL Philadelphia 01 - Airport (7.64GB) KPHL Philadelphia 02 - Roads (2.20 Mb) KPHL Philadelphia 03 - Mesh (32.8 Mb) 7.65Gb is installed into your Custom Scenery folder, Obviously the "Mesh" has to be installed below the other two folders. X-Plane 11 compatibility file "Earth nav data" is included for X-Plane 11 conversion SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 3.0 or higher is required for this scenery Documents There is a supplied manual; KPHL_Manual.pdf 2 pages for installation and requirements ________________________________________ Review System Specifications Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.05r1 (This is a Release Candidate review). Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99 Scenery or Aircraft -none- ____________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 8th June 2023 Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions. Kiwiflyer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.