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Post by spad54 on Jun 12, 2010 15:12:13 GMT -5
project started. Not may folks know of this bird, but she was Douglas Aircrafts first passenger plane, a version was owned by Bill Boeing and it was the first aircraft ever purchased for exclusive use by The President of the United States, then FDR. Although he never used it, his wife Elenore frequently did. Stay tune for more updates in the weeks and months ahead
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Post by teisco on Jun 12, 2010 18:58:47 GMT -5
Cool!
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Post by attaway on Jun 12, 2010 22:51:51 GMT -5
Very nice choice. Took a look at some photos and drawings on line. She's going to be sweet - and fit right in with the other beauties coming out of your virtual hanger. Looking forward to flying her around Golden Wings. I suppose you guys will do the Coast Guard livery, otherwise this old Coastie (CWO2, USCG, Retired) will just have to do it up myself. www.uscg.mil/history/webaircraft/Douglas_RD.pdfStephen
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Post by windrunner on Jun 13, 2010 4:39:14 GMT -5
A good start Paul; attaway I definitely would like to see a plane called "Bellatrix"!
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Post by spad54 on Jun 13, 2010 7:18:51 GMT -5
Very nice choice. Took a look at some photos and drawings on line. She's going to be sweet - and fit right in with the other beauties coming out of your virtual hanger. Looking forward to flying her around Golden Wings. I suppose you guys will do the Coast Guard livery, otherwise this old Coastie (CWO2, USCG, Retired) will just have to do it up myself. www.uscg.mil/history/webaircraft/Douglas_RD.pdfStephen We have multiple liveries planed including the Coast Guard. Here is a shot of the aircraft in that livery The last example of the aircraft is at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola Fla. She had a long life flying for Wilmington-Catalina Airlines, then was purchased by the Coast Guard and transferred to the Army Air Corps during WWII. She was surplussed in 1948 and in the early 1950's purchased by Colgate "Coke" Darden of South Carolina, who flew it as a personal craft until 1998 when it was determined that corrosion on the main wing spar would require extensive restoration. This was the point that he donated the plane to the museum. Here is a video of his last flight in the aircraft www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow7AmOkWC0Q
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Post by attaway on Jun 17, 2010 16:26:32 GMT -5
That is very good news indeed. Love looking at all the dented panels on that Dolphin - all our old HH52s looked just like that in my day. For that matter, so did all our cutters...
And the water landing in that video is really, really smooth.
Stephen
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Post by spad54 on Aug 1, 2010 7:55:47 GMT -5
She flies in FSX.
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Post by windrunner on Aug 1, 2010 9:37:46 GMT -5
Nice!
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Post by teisco on Aug 1, 2010 12:04:46 GMT -5
Cool!
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Post by Roger on Aug 1, 2010 15:24:49 GMT -5
Excellent!
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Post by spad54 on Oct 17, 2010 11:46:49 GMT -5
It's been a busy couple of months and the project has been moving along albeit it in fits and stops. Its probably as ambitious a project as we have attempted and FSDS 3.5 has been driving me nuts as it has a bug that requires many of the animated parts to be renames in order to work properly. That's behind us now and so fresh out of the paint shop, we took her for a short flight from Catalina Island Airport to Hamilton Cove in Avalon. Its been nearly 70 years since an Dolphin has visited it in any form real or simulated. The project is still a work in progress, the VC cabin needs attention and upon completion of the civilian version a tear down of the cabin will be required along with a new livery to create the Coast Guard version. There is a scenery project being done concurrently that will recreate the Hamilton Cove seaplane airport from the 1930s giving FSX a Golden Wings touch for the model. Here's a few shot of the first flight Catalina Airport early morning Climbing out over the pacific. The mainland coast in the distance about 25 miles away Quick check of the controls, right engine looks fine Looking due east, getting ready to turn south to Avalon Water landing near the Grand Casino in Avalon Off to the mainland Cruising over the Pacific We'll update as we get closer to release. Unfortunately there will not be an FS9 version. The file size limits imposed by FS9 make impossible to get anywhere near the details that would do this plane justice. (and we feel terrible about that) We'll make it up to our FS9 fans on the next project
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Post by windrunner on Oct 17, 2010 12:41:39 GMT -5
Beautiful!
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Post by milton on Oct 17, 2010 13:00:27 GMT -5
Beautiful work, really nice looking modeling and mapping too.
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Post by Roger on Oct 17, 2010 17:23:07 GMT -5
Great aircraft from a great period!
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Post by spad54 on Nov 20, 2010 11:57:26 GMT -5
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