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FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004
10
A CENTURY OF FLIGHT
11
Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS
For thousands of pilots who learned to y in the
Curtiss JN–4D “Jenny” during World War I, the postwar skies were an open
opportunity. Barnstormers looped and swooped above gasping crowds and,
for many people, airplanes were still such a new sight that nearly every ight
was an impromptu air show. The Curtiss Jenny, which performed in many
such spectacles during the 1920s, introduced the public to ight.
It was an era when pilots dreamed of
adventure. In 1920, Tex Marshall, his
wife Katherine, and their friend Frank
Palmer set out for Ohio from Florida in
a pair of Curtiss Jenny airplanes. They
had no set schedule, few certain landing
elds, and inaccurate maps. As Marshall
soon discovered, the sky was as full of
challenge as of wonder. One challenge
had a name: weather.
Weather
Like the early yers’ aspirations, the skies
in Flight Simulator have no limits. Just as
you can re-create Tex Marshall’s cross-
country ight, y a Curtiss Jenny through a
barn near Findlay, Ohio, and pilot the daring
“Hell Stretch” airmail route across the
stormy Allegheny Mountains, you can also
customize many kinds of weather—from
severe thunderstorms to a clear blue
afternoon—to test your skills.
Clouds are one of the most marvelous and
challenging parts of ight, and they’re the
centerpiece of Flight Simulator’s improved
weather system. Flight Simulator now features Dynamic Weather;
three-dimensional clouds build and change realistically with the
temperature and time of day, and even blow across the sky. The dynamic
weather system also generates rain, snow, and fronts that develop based
on atmospheric conditions.
Flight Simulator’s new Weather Themes—preset weather conditions
centered on your aircraft’s current location—generate challenging ying
scenarios with just a few clicks. Select “Cold Fronts” to y through
fast-moving storms, “Fogged In” to test your instrument skills, “Winter
Wonderland” to spend a beautiful day ying amid snow urries, or one
of seven other preset themes that let you experience complex weather
conditions without having to set conditions along your ight path.
During World War I alone, the Curtiss JN–4D
“Jenny” was used to train nearly 9,000 American pilots—
95 percent of the yers in the United States in 1919.
The Curtiss Jenny
starred in many antics during
the barnstorming years.
The Ford 4–AT Tri-Motor prepares
for takeoff in the “Winter
Wonderland” weather theme.
Dreams Of
the sky