Overland 747-400

The Boeing 747 is a long-range, wide body commercial passenger jet aircraft. The Boeing 747-400 was launched in 1985 and entered service in 1989. The -400 version introduced improvements like winglets, tail fuel tanks, new more powerful and fuel efficient engines, new interior, and new glass cockpit with six large CRT displays. The stretched upper deck that was introduced with the -300 version was standard for the passenger and combi variants, while the new cargo version kept the smaller upper deck, which was useless in freighter configuration as no cargo is placed on this deck.

Simmer's sky is a label of the Japanese company Overland Co.,Ltd. Along with a few other products, they sell the Fly into the sky! package, which contains many Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

Like all aircraft in the Fly into the sky! package, this Boeing 747-400 is a beautifully designed aircraft and represents its real world counterpart well. The package contains 11 Boeing 747-400 liveries: Thai Airways (old colors), Thai Airways (new colors), Korean Air, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Garuda Indonesia, China Airlines, China Airlines 'Dreamliner', Air Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. All three engine variants are modeled, but a freighter variant is not included.

The 2d panel is frame rate friendly, but doesn't have a FMC. For full IFR flights, you need to use the default Carmin GPS unit. ILS Approaches are no problem, just enter the course/ILS frequency and use the LOC and APPR buttons. The virtual cockpit is a bit simple, only the most important systems are modeled. But it looks nice and is frame rate friendly too. There is also a wingview model for even better frame rate.

The flight dynamics are ok, but the ground effect is minimal, which can result in bumpy landings due to the little effect of the flare. Another thing is the main landing gear. Like almost all other overland aircraft, the main landing gear seems to float for a bit over the runway upon landing and finally sinks to the ground when rolling out. This is a common problem in FS, especially landing gear sets with four-wheel bogies or even more wheels. In this case the problem is present with two-wheel bogies.

--