Vought F7U Cutlass for FSX/FS2004
1 reviewsAlthough this aircraft came out close to 70 years ago, it's still a model that gets a huge amount of respect from pilots both real and virtual. It was first brought out in 1945 and was designed as being a jet that was capable of going above the 600mph, 40,000ft and 0.95 Mach ceiling of the day. Unfortunately, this was unable to hit these heights in the guise of the F7U-1. Read more...
- Compatibility
- Microsoft Flight Simulator X & Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
- File size
- 24 MB
- Developer
- Virtavia
Eventually, the F7U-3 came along and this was a vast improvement, although still not at the same level as was hoped for. However, the aircraft was well loved by those who used it due to its durable and rugged nature. This package removes the serious problems that existed with this aircraft and instead lets you see how it would have flown if it wasn't managed by such a ridiculous set of rulings! This really is worth having installed if you like old-school aircraft.
Key Features
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This recreation of the Cutlass has been designed with the realism and the authenticity in mind, and this is carried out with the fact that the aircraft itself flies with the genuine features and additions that you might have expected from the real thing, including accurate dynamics.
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The model, though, creates the perfect balance between realism and style as well as making sure you'll have no problems adapting to the way that this aircraft works. It comes with a fully native FSX model with unique features that work allied to the simulator such as bmp mapping, self-shadowing and bloom texturing. When working together, all of these features look absolutely brilliant and manage to perfectly capture the quality and the style of the real thing. These accurate features in the model extend to the rest of the aircraft in terms of scale, size and overall levels of realism.
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The detailed textures included also look brilliant, adding a nice layer of subtle reflectivity to the package and ensuring that it really does look the part. The whole thing looks excellent and the textures, with hours of hard work and commitment put into them, really make the aircraft gleam and stand out.
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The aircraft comes with variety, as well. There are three unique loadout variations included so that you can get a fresh and accurate representation of the aircraft itself; this includes making sure that you have a "clean" edition that comes with nothing fancy, nothing extra; just the aircraft.
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If you like to see the whole package come together and look the part then you will look the addition of the sublime audio files in this package. It brings the whole together and uses a simulated package based on the real thing to give you a soundset that works.
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An authentic virtual cockpit that comes with various animations and mousable controls to make sure the whole thing can work in the way that you would hope - this isn't just sounds and textures! It's a package that really makes the aircraft move as one, and the awesome animations attest to this.
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Indeed, the whole package manages to really give you total control over the aircraft by adding in various features that are clickable and usable within the cockpit. For example, the all-XML 2D panels look great and come with various customized pop-ups for autopilot and radios to make sure you have total control over the aircraft itself. It's also fully mousable and gives you the help that you need in really making the whole thing stand out and operate in the way that you would expect when flying a piece of high-end military aviation equipment fit for high-end combat operations.
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To make sure you can feel completely at home in this package, you will receive an unbelievable amount of extra animations and features that all come together. With the help of this package, you get access to automatic, animated afterburner visual effects that come with the right kind of performance boost in general. Likewise, the whole model produces unique smoke trails and wing surface vapor flashes, along with vortices effects, to really bring the whole thing together and make you realize just how powerful this aircraft can be.
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Other animated features include the wingfold, tailhook, speedbrakes and even the canopy. To make the canopy unfold and do as you need, you simply need to hit SHIFT + E to watch the canopy move as you would have hoped for in the first place! An easy and effective way to get yourself moving in a direction you will feel comfortable with.
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Lastly, the aircraft comes with Togglable pilot figures that make it nice and easy to improve the realism factor. It's never nice to be a ghost pilot as it shoots the realism down, but with this mod you have no worries on that front as a detailed pilot is included.
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A highly authentic flight model with an illustrated, detailed checklist. The whole thing manages to give you the help that you need in making the whole thing come together and ensure that you are left with an aircraft that is easy enough to fly and even simpler to work the way you wanted.
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The virtual cockpit rain effects are a lovely touch, too, and make it even easier to buy into the whole realism of this aircraft. The whole thing flies perfectly but these little miniscule additions and changes really do make all the difference when you are flying around.
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A realistic, animated crew figure will sit in the cockpit and make sure you feel comfortable with the entire look of the aircraft - these little features and changes do make all the difference in the long run as you try and make the aircraft feel as welcoming as it can.
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A paintkit is available to be used as well if you want to make up your own livery designs. Please be aware though that this needs the use of Adobe Photoshop and plenty of experience to make the liveries look the way that they should when using a flight simulator.
About Virtavia
Founded in 1999 by Phil Perrott and originally named Alphasim who developed freeware aircraft for FS2004/FSX. Now rebranded as Virtavia who now publish payware add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Prepar3D based on the old heavily modified Alphasim stock.
Virtavia has a focus on military aircraft add-ons compatible with FSX, Prepar3D, and X-Plane. Focusing on historic and modern military aircraft, their add-ons have been well received by flight sim pilots and rated highly.
SimShack stock the entire range of Virtavia add-ons and continue to list any new versions or releases announced by Virtavia.
Customer Reviews
Rated 5.0/5.0 based on 1 customer reviews
- 11/04/2015
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5/5
I'm always a fan of trying out new aircraft especially when they are military grade, and his is one of my favorites for messing around in on other simulators. So when I got it for FSX and FS2004 I was really excited about trying it out and seeing how the aircraft would feel - after all it's kind of a relic, haha!
It felt really good, though, and seemed to really represent the old Cutlass itself which I felt would be a hard ask given the massive difference between the Cutlass and what we have today. Since it can go so fast for its age it still carries that incredible kick that can be quite hard to handle, but the actual enjoyment you get from flying this particular model is built on the fact it just feels so incredibly unhinged. Like an old F1 car, it feels like it has no control or any kind of handling whatsoever!
However considering I spend a lot of my normal FSX time flying around in big cargo ships and the like it's nice to fire around and make quick turns in something as crazy as this. Whilst the turns aren't always my most accurate as they are so rapid, it feels brilliant to be in the cockpit for something so powerful.
The model itself looks awesome and was something I was really impressed by, but the function and the overall performance was something that I would ask any Cutlass enthusiast to try.
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