Virtavia - Vought F7U Cutlass

In 1945, Vought Corporation was asked to design a naval jet which would exceed 600 mph and have a service ceiling of 40,000 feet at 0.95 Mach. The result was the F7U-1, an unfortunately lackluster aircraft. The plane was redesigned as the F7U-3, with uprated engines and other improvements. Still, the plane was underpowered and suffered many problems, among them a weak nosegear strut which could collapse on a carrier landing and break the pilot's back. The plane suffered from high fuel consumption and was likely to go completely out of control at high angles of attack. However, it was rugged and was known to have pulled over 9 gs on more than one occasion, with at least one visibly bent aircraft after such a maneuver. In our version, all the danger is gone, but all the great fun of flying an early jet age fighter-bomber remains. But watch out for high angles of attack -- this bird loves to tumble. In all, 307 of all types were produced, 98 of which were the F7U-3M.

Features

• full native FSX model with all FSX features (bump mapping, self-shadowing, bloom, etc.)


• 3 loadout variations, including 'clean'


• detailed textures with subtle reflectivity


• simulated F7U soundset included


• authentic virtual cockpit with animations and mousable controls


• authentic all-xml 2D panel, custom pop-ups for autopilot and radios, fully mousable


• automatic (on throttle) animated afterburner visual effect with corresponding performance boost


• automatic smoke trail, wing surface vapor flash and wingtip vortices effects


• animated wingfold, tailhook, speedbrakes, togglable pilot figure


• animated canopy (shift-e)


• highly authentic flight model with illustrated checklist


• VC rain effects (FS2004 only)


• realistic, animated crew figure


• paint kit available on freeware page