PRESS RELEASE
FROM THE R4D TEAM OF THE MID ATLANTIC AIR MUSEUM
THE NEW GMAX DOUGLAS R4D-6 WILL FLY!
If you heard that the newest and greatest version of the famous MAAM NATS R4D-6 flight simulation, featuring Jan Visser's beautiful new G-max model with virtual cockpit and cabin had been cancelled, then we are about to make your day!
The R4D Team, originally conceived and formed by Bill Rambow in 1999, has been reborn under a new banner....
BILL RAMBOW, JAN VISSER and FRED BANTING REFORM R4D TEAM
Bill Rambow, the team's panel designer, and Jan Visser, its aircraft designer have renewed their partnership and have now been joined by top-notch FS gauge programmer Fred Banting . As a member of MAAM-SIM, an official arm of the Mid Atlantic Air Museum, Fred is looking forward to the challenge and to helping raise money for the museum's projects.
If that last name is familiar, well it should be. Fred has a long history as an FS programmer and with his partners has specialized in DeHavilland aircraft, as one might expect of a red-blooded Canadian. Like Bill and Jan, Fred is a two time recipient of Flightsim.com's Developer's Award, one for the DHC-2 Beaver (beaver7.zip) and another for the Falcon 50 Caea (bvrmod2.zip). Fred has collaborated with Jan before, programming the gauges for the DC-2 Uiver Package (dc2-pack.zip), so he's no stranger to round engine airplanes or Douglas airliners. Bill and Jan are very pleased to welcome Fred aboard.
MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE GMAX R4D
You may have read that the Gmax R4D would be compatible only with Windows 2000 and XP operating systems. This would have severely limited the use and enjoyment of this plane for a huge segment of the flight sim community. Well, the second piece of good news is that this problem has been solved by Fred, and the new R4D will be more system friendly than ever before. Users of Windows 98 SE and ME will be able to use the new Gmax R4D without restriction or hindrance.
If you have not seen all of Jan's stunning Gmax aircraft and virtual cockpit and screenshots, go to Avsim on-line and feast your eyes. They were posted May 8 and May 27, but the easiest way to find them is enter Jan Visser in the front page search block. You'll see why the reinstatement of the project is cause for joy.
B-25J "BRIEFING TIME"
Speaking of projects... In addition to reprogramming and releasing the Gmax R4D, MAAM-SIM will also complete the other project currently in development, our B-25-J "Briefing Time". Jan is very excited to be resuming his seat as the team's aircraft designer on this exciting plane, which he actually had flying over a year ago in preliminary form, as you see her below. Jan, of course, plans a full virtual cockpit for the Mitchell, as well. When he's done, you will be able to move around the cockpit, the flight engineer's compartment, the top turret, and even slide down the tunnel to the bombardier's compartment in the nose!
The sound suite for the B-25, recorded by Bill aboard "Briefing Time" during numerous flights, will be assembled by Jan. Those big Wright radials will blow the doors off your computer room, if you aren't easy on the volume knob.
Bill's flight model will be validated by Russ Strine, Mid Atlantic Air Museum President and Chief Pilot of "Briefing Time"
...and these are screen-shots of the year-old Alpha model. Just wait until Jan goes to work with Gmax!
Bill's photo-real multiple panels for the Mitchell will feature gauges and controls that faithfully recreate their counterparts in the real MAAM "Briefing Time". Seven photo-real views will allow you to take your position as the bombardier (great for sight seeing and exciting for landings!), "check six" from the top turret, or gaze out from the waist gunner's positions. There will be enlarged, "IFR" panels for both pilots and the panels will feature multiple pop-up overlays to access such features as the full quadrant and ignition and lights panel, flap and gear controls, the Sperry auto-pilot, and the radio stack.
EXPECTED RELEASE DATES
Obviously, with the replacement of our gauge programmer, not to mention all the code, the team has much work to do before either of these great packages are ready to fly. We do not even want to hazard a guess as to when they might be finished, at this point. The projected Fall 2002 release of the B-25 is no longer a realistic goal, and obviously, we do not know how long it will take to re-program the entire R4D, either. Keep in mind, not only do the gauges of the virtual cockpit need to be re-coded from scratch, but so do all the gauges and controls of the 2D panels, as well. Realistically, both planes will take many months to complete, but we think you'll agree they will be worth waiting for. Press releases will keep you advised on our progress, and the official home on the web of the MAAM-SIM team is www.maam.org , the Mid Atlantic Air Museum's web page. Please direct all flight sim related inquiries to Bill Rambow or Jan Visser, because Fred Pierce, our webmaster, and Pete Malashevitz, the museum's Program Coordinator, already have enough to do. Jan and Bill will do their best to answer your questions, but please keep in mind that e-mails do cut into development time.
THE FUTURE OF MAAM-SIM
But it will not end with these two planes. Once the new R4D and B-25 are launched, Jan and Bill are planning to create a whole series of MAAM aircraft packages. The first of these may well be the museum's gorgeous Beech G-18S "Super", the first multi-engine aircraft produced by Beech which had the longest production run of any piston-driven twin - 30 years. Or perhaps it will be the Eastern Airlines - Martin 4-0-4 "Silver Falcon". Also slated for possible simulation packages are the Lockheed P2V-7 "Neptune" maritime patrol bomber, Fairchild C-119F "Flying Boxcar", Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 "Yellow Peril" open cockpit biplane trainer, Capitol Airlines - Vickers Armstrong 745 D "Viscount", and others. All will get the same, extreme photo-real textures and panels demonstrated in the R4D and B-25, and all will be sold to raise money for our museum's projects. The team's ultimate goal will be to raise enough money to complete the P-61 Black Widow Restoration. . When the MAAM P-61 finally takes to the skies, she will be the only flying example of type out of four remaining in the entire world. Along with the MAAM-SIM Team, you, the flight sim community will be a part of that.
SUPPORT NEEDED
We would like to ask for your support and patience as we rebuild and recover. But there is a more important, immediate aspect of all this. In a conversation with Bill Rambow this week, Russ Strine, President of the Mid Atlantic Air Museum, expressed his worry and concern about the loss of expected revenue to the museum that the decision to kill the Gmax R4D had caused. MAAM was depending on the money that the new Gmax R4D and the B-25 CD sales would have brought in to pay for the two P&W 1830-94 engines he has on order. Our team has raised, to date, over $77,000 for the museum and this has enabled the purchase of the engine needed to get our Martin 4-0-4 back home to Reading (one of our initial goals with version 1 of the R4D). We are well along toward paying for these very expensive (about $50K each) and unusual engines for the Douglas, too. But the recent events in the previous team have caused havoc with the financial plans of the museum.
So, we, the MAAM-SIM developers, all un-paid volunteers, are asking you to help. There are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world flying and enjoying the R4D in sims from FS98 through FS2002 and CFS 1 and 2 who have never given a single cent to our cause. The registration procedure for the FS2002 (non-Gmax) R4D helped to bring a lot of these pilots into the fold of contributors with their $5 fees, and for that we are grateful. But we need some help from the others - those who never bothered. If everyone who downloaded the various versions of the R4D had given just a single dollar, we could have purchased those engines, refurbished the entire plane, and had another $100K left over for other museum projects.
Jan, Fred and Bill are confident and determined that their efforts will eventually succeed, but we ask the help of flight simmers everywhere to fill the monetary gap. If you have not donated before, or even if you have and would like to do more, please do so on-line here , or send a check or money order to: Mid Atlantic Air Museum, 11 Museum Drive, Reading, PA 19605.
If you are not already a MAAM R4D CD owner, you can still get Edition 7 from the museum's on-line store. The cost is $25 and we will ship it anywhere in the world for $4.95. All the proceeds, about $24 of every $25 purchase, goes directly to the museum Engine Replacement Fund, because Bill burns the CDs and print the labels himself, to keep overhead costs to a minimum. There are no middle-men getting fat on us, or you! The CD has full, self-installing R4D aircraft packages for FS98, FS2000, FS2002 (non-Gmax), CFS, and CFS2, along with vintage DC-3 manuals, hundreds of photos, a video of the R4D in flight, and much, much more.
To all their loyal supporters, Jan, Fred, and Bill want to say thank you, and on behalf of our museum and team, the Mid Atlantic Air Museum and MAAM-SIM, a heartfelt thanks to all those flight simmers who have helped build this special relationship, the first of its kind between a non-profit air museum and a flight sim development team.
MID ATLANTIC AIR MUSEUM SIMULATIONS
"The R4D Team"
AUGUST 8, 2002