NEW 'BRIEFING TIME' CD RELEASED
THE MID-ATLANTIC AIR MUSEUM ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF THE FS2004 / FS2002 CD
The award winning MAAM B-25J Mitchell, 'Briefing Time', add-on aircraft and multi-media package for FS2002 has now been updated for Flight Simulator 2004 "A Century of Flight" and upgraded with some great new features.
For the first time, a MAAM-SIM CD will include additional models. The bare-metal version of 'Briefing Time' as she looked soon after delivery to the 489th Bombardment Squadron, 340th Bombardment Group in Corsica, before she got her coat of olive and gray paint, as shown in the wartime photo below.
But the "R4D Team" has gone beyond these two versions of the museum's prize winning restored Mitchell to depict yet another model of the B-25J.
The "strafer" version of the J-model was widely used in the Pacific theater where it's 14 forward-firing .50 caliber machine guns proved devastating to Japanese shipping and ground targets. This ship flew with the 489th Bombardment Squadron "Falcons", 345th Bombardment Group "Air Apaches".
If you look closely at the shot above, you'll get a hint of one of the improvements to the aircraft. A screen-shot can't really do it justice, but the exhaust flashes from each of the bomber's 28 exhaust stacks, is just one of the new effects. Others include...
Realistic B-25 Engine Start-up Smoke
New Tire Touchdown Marks and Smoke
Bill Rambow, Jan Visser, Fred Banting, Rob Young, Bill Womack, Mike Hambly and Jan Rosenberg have given the package a complete revamp to make the aircraft fully compatible with FS2004. Perhaps the most time-consuming and critical was a rebuild of the flight model. Renowned for it's fidelity to the real Briefing Time's flight characteristics, the flight dynamics needed a thorough rebuild to maintain the ability to fly it by the book.
Speaking of the book - or books - there is a new interactive checklist that allows you to check off completed items...
An extensively illustrated User's Manual will guide you through every panel, pop-up, and phase of flight operations...
Supplementing the manual are 11 instructional, digital videos filmed on board 'BT' and at air shows around the region covering all phases of flight. Several of these feature instructions by MAAM President Russ Strine, demonstrating engine-starting, engine shut-down, takeoff, and more.
If you prefer your reference materials to be vintage, you won't be disappointed. A twenty-minute WW-II B-25 Training Film will take you through a complete short-course on flying the Mitchell...
... and a complete, 170-page, Pilot Training Manual for the B-25, clearly scanned in high resolution jpegs will go into even more detail.
Because these references were used to create Briefing Time's accurate simulation, you can use them to fly her, as realistically as you could wish.
The aircraft's exterior and interior feature "extreme photo-realistic textures derived from thousands of digital photographs. The sounds of the mighty Wright Double-Cyclones were recorded in the real plane, of course. 'BT's flight performance has been painstakingly reproduced in the simulation's flight model.
*******************************************************************************************************
There are an even dozen 2D panels and pop-ups, including both the pilot's and copilot's perspectives, with enlarged, IFR panels for both. All of the gauges and controls on the real aircraft have been duplicated exactly and programmed to operate like their real-world counterparts.
*******************************************************************************************************
'Briefing Time' features a "virtual cockpit" of exceptional clarity and detail with numerous animated controls and features...
But it does not stop there. You can move into the Upper Turret Compartment, to the rear of the cockpit...
...then "slide" through the tunnel beneath the flight deck...
Seven photo-real views allow you to take up other crew positions, such as the waist gunner's...
...and the top turret gunner's...
Both self-installing aircraft packages, include three different complexity levels of virtual cockpit and cabin to accommodate slower systems, or just boost your frame rate when you want top performance. Easy menu selections allow you to fly the complete aircraft, or to opt for the Medium version, which has the virtual cockpit, but not the other compartments; or the Light, which dispenses with the 3D virtual cockpit altogether. Switching between versions can be done at any time by accessing the aircraft menu, and since the three versions are identical in every other way, you won't even disturb your flight path.
The CD can only be purchased directly from MAAM, either in the museum store, or on-line here.
GET IT NOW BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP!
Even though there are more goodies on the CD, the price is still $25 and the entire amount goes to support museum restoration programs. But this price will not last long! A commercially boxed version is now in production by Vmax Flight Systems which will be available on-line and on store shelves in Europe and North America before Christmas. The price will be $29.95 plus shipping. You will still be able to order it from the museum, but we are contractually obligated to raise our price, once the Vmax discs are in stock. So if you have been waiting for the FS2004 upgrade to order BT, now's the time!
*******************************************************************************************************
WANT EVEN MORE?
Now you can get your copy of the
MID
B-25J MITCHELL
'BRIEFING TIME'
MULTI-MEDIA CD
If
you would like to see and learn more about the B-25 Mitchell, and particularly,
about the MID
The
CD is crammed with over 700 MB of digital video and photographs, vintage
manuals, and an original article on the history of the B-25. You can order
your copy from MAAM for $10 and it will be
shipped anywhere in the world for $4.95. ALL
PROCEEDS GO TO SUPPORT THE MID
TIP: Order both the B-25 'Briefing Time' for Flight Simulator and the Multi-Media CD together and save $4.95 in shipping charges over separate orders. You will receive both CD's for $39.95, shipped anywhere in the world.
Here's what you get for your ten bucks...
VINTAGE MANUALS Five genuine World War II era publications from the MAAM library are included on the CD. The pages are clearly scanned as jpegs so you can display them with any graphics program or picture viewer. These fascinating historical documents are profusely illustrated with pictures, diagrams, and graphs covering all phases of B-25 operations. They include:
FLIGHT
MANUAL - B-25J MEDIUM BOMBARDMENT AIRPLANE, North
American Aviation, Inc., 22 Jun 44 - 256 pages. Scan size: 545
x 802
*******************************************************************************************************************
FLIGHT
HANDBOOK - B-25J SERIES AIRPLANE, AAF
AN 01-60GE-1, 25 APR 52
- 128 pages. Scan size: 1270 x 1560
*******************************************************************************************************************
FLIGHT
INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL - B-25, B-26 AIRPLANES, HQ
III Bomber Command memo 50-7,
*******************************************************************************************************************
PILOT
TRAINING MANUAL FOR THE MITCHELL BOMBER B-25, AAF Manual No. 50-11,
revised 1 APR 45 - 170 pages. Scan size: 100 x 1360
Also
included on the FS Package CD,
but duplicated here for B-25 buffs who do not fly Flight Sim - yes, there are a
few such deprived souls out there. *******************************************************************************************************************
489th BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON YEARBOOK (the WW-II unit of 'Briefing Time'), excerpts , 1946 - 15 pages. Scan size: various
*******************************************************************************************************************
VIDEOS
These
videos were shot during a number of flights aboard 'Briefing Time' throughout
the 2001 and 2002 air show seasons. Fly
along with pilot Russ Strine, copilot Tim O'Hara they attend air shows, buzz the
restored Liberty Ship U.S.S. Brown in the Chesapeake Bay, perform a Doolittle
Raid re-enactment with other Mitchells, and fly top cover for the 'Liberation of
Reading' at MAAM's 12th Annual World War II Weekend. You'll be
"plugged in" for the flight from
There are more than 40 minutes of digital color and sound video included in MPEG1 format. Here are some vid-caps from just a few of the videos...
*******************************************************************************************************************
HISTORY
Howard Sodja, a professional writer and private pilot of forty year's experience, has written an illustrated article, A Brief History Of The B-25 "Mitchell" Medium Bomber, covering the development of the plane from its conception, to its use today. It details all the changes that took place in the design during its six year production run.
B-25B Lower Turret
*******************************************************************************************************************
PHOTOS
Here are 500 digital photographs of ever nook and cranny of 'Briefing Time' taken over the last two years in the course of developing the "B-25J 'Briefing Time' Flight Simulator 2002 Add-On Package. Since 'Briefing Time' is not open to the public during air shows, this is a unique chance for you to see what she looks like inside, from nose to tail. What the pictures reveal is a very rare bird indeed, one of only three B-25's in existence that are restored inside and out to this level of war-time condition and completeness. Below is a representative sample. Click on the thumbnails to view the sample, full-sized photos, which range from 640 x 480 to 2048 x 1536...
*******************************************************************************************************************
ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE B-25J 'BRIEFING TIME' MULTI-MEDIA CD FROM THE MUSEUM
SHOP
Only available in CD form.
*******************************************************************************************************************
FREE UPGRADES FOR PREVIOUS BT VERSIONS
We have not forgotten you down-loaders and FS2002 BT CD owners, though. You can download a free upgrade for your BT, "bt_fs9.zip" from the file library. While you are there, you can grab the free add-on upgrades to install the Bare-Metal 'Briefing Time', "bt_bm_9.zip" and the Falcon gunship, "b25j_fal.zip", to your hangar. You must have the full version, either CD or download, of BT to use any of these upgrades, or the numerous, free, BT repaints that are available on the web.
THANKS FOR SUPPORTING THE MID-ATLANTIC AIR MUSEUM
Come visit us at Reading Regional Airport, Pennsylvania
Watch for the all new Gmax R4D / DC-3 package and KRDG /MAAM scenery, coming soon!
MAAM-SIM "The R4D Team"
Bill Rambow, Jan Visser, Fred Banting, Rob Young, Bill Womack, and Mike Hambly
