Addictive Simulations HS121 Trident

The HS121 Trident is a classic short/medium-range three-engined airliner built by Hawker Siddeley Aviation. The first flight of the Trident 1 took place on 9 January 1962 and entered service with British European Airways on 1 April 1964. The Trident was powered by three Rolls-Royce Spey engines. The Trident 3B got a fourth engine in the tail, fed from a separate duct on top of the normal one. The development of the Trident started with the Trident 1 and ended with the stretched and improved Super Trident 3B. The Trident was a very advanced aircraft for its time. It was the first commercial aircraft that could auto approach/land, the first commercial aircraft fitted with a flight data recorder and also had the unusual capability to use reverse thrust in flight. Another advanced feature was a moving map display on the centre instrument panel, indicating the aircraft position over a motor-driven paper roll. Despite the many advanced features and the fact that no Trident ever crashed due to a design flaw or mechanical failure, it was with only 117 airframes produced not a commercial success.

Addictive Simulations is developer of various classic British aircraft. Their HS121 Trident package contains 1C/E, 2E and 3B variants of the Trident, various liveries, panel, virtual cockpit, sound package and (very) brief manual. The exterior is quite simple and the liveries are of average quality. Not many cockpit systems are modeled, only the most basic ones. Both the 2d panel and virtual cockpit look simple and not all buttons and handles are clickable. There is also a passenger cabin modeled in the virtual cockpit mode. Most of the textures in the vc are a bit blurry due to the low resolution textures. Both the internal and external sounds are not that good and not loud enough too. The flight dynamics seem alright, the control inputs are a bit slow, but that is exactly how it should be on a classic jet.

If this was the only Trident for FS2004, it could be still interesting, but the freeware alternative offers a lot more.





--