[ANNOUNCEMENT] FlyingIron F6F-5 Hellcat

Update: You can now purchase the F6F-5 Hellcat from our website: F6F-5 Hellcat for Microsoft Flight Simulator – FlyingIron Simulations

G’day folks!

Mean, rugged & powerful. These 3 simple terms can only begin to describe the beast of a machine that is the US Navy’s F6F Hellcat.

The Hellcat is a beautifully designed, carrier-operated fighter that is credited with destroying more enemy aircraft than any other Allied naval aircraft and playing a key role in achieving air superiority over the Pacific for the Allied Forces.

The Hellcat is powered by a monstrous 2,000hp (2,250hp WEP) Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp - an 18 cylinder air-cooled radial engine featuring a 2-stage, 2-speed Supercharger and water injection. The powerplant drives a huge 4m 3-bladed Hamilton Standard Constant-speed propeller.

Key Features:

  • Incredibly detailed 3D Modelling & Artwork, with precise & intricate detailing of complex features such as the radial engine, gear bays & wing joints.
  • 10+ Historical Liveries, painstakingly detailed & textured
  • The authentic roar of the R-2800 Double Wasp Engine - professionally recorded from a real F6F Hellcat by the same production team that recorded our Spitfire sounds.
  • Wing-folding, Catapult Launches & Carrier Landing capabilities. Put your flying skills to the ultimate test!
  • Detailed simulation of all aircraft systems, including electrical & pneumatic systems.
  • Detailed simulation of the R-2800 Double Wasp Engine & it’s many cooling systems.
  • Automated Flap system
  • FlyingIron Tablet UI Integration
  • And Much more!

We’ve cut Grav (GotGravel) loose for this one and given him more coding responsibilities & he has been relishing the work! His work on the aircraft systems is every bit as detailed as his work on the Flight Models. Together Alex & Grav have been making sure every nut, bolt, rivet, lever and switch looks, animates, behaves and reacts just like it should!

With our 3D Modeller having passed on the model to us some time ago, Alex has been hard at work mapping, texturing & animating the model with a matching level of detail. Although it’s still only an early work-in-progress, you can see the beautiful detail in his work - from the oil & grime streaks, the smallest decals, to the accurately replicated, imperfect hand-drawn nose art - really brought to life inside MSFS.

As an added bonus, we’ve purchased an exceptionally high-quality sample pack of F6F recordings, featuring hundreds of samples professionally recorded from a real F6F. There are over 20 different engine recordings alone, recorded from different positions & with varying microphones. When I’m not working on the A-7, I’ve been building the F6F sound design package in Wwise from the above samples. You can expect exceptional sounds in this module!

Here are some work-in-progress images for you to enjoy :slight_smile:

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Thanks for reading! Stay safe pilots,
Dan, Alex and Rai
FlyingIron Simulations

P.S: Check out our blog post for extra goodies :grinning:

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[OBLIGATORY]

:slight_smile:

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When it comes to Xbox it’s a day one purchase! Been flying my T-6 and ready to move up…

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YESSSSSSSSSS!!! I was not expecting this at all from FI, I figured the Jug would’ve been ext but this is even better!

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Oh, that’s fantastic news!

Was just posting earlier today that I hoped you’d bring the P-47 over to MSFS.

But a naval Jug? Even better. How long since we’ve had a Hellcat for a Microsoft flight sim (or for X-Plane for that matter) - a decade?

I am absolutely on board for this.

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Can’t wait. I’ve had a thing for the US Navy WWII aircraft since CFSII.

I only bought the Lightning yesterday (already have the Spit) so these will see me through until release :slight_smile:

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Now we just need a rough release date

To say that I can’t wait is such an understatement. I am so excited for this. Thanks guys.

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I’m a big combat flight sim enthusiast. My favorite is IL-2 Great Battles for both WWI and WWII combat.

But what do you guys do with all these cool WWII aircraft since there is no combat in MSFS 2020?

I’m looking for a reason to start buying them, but I can’t think of one. Maybe some ferrying missions, but that seems like it would get old fairly quickly. What am I missing? :thinking:

Barnstorming around beautiful parts of the world, dogfighting other warbirds through valleys, hills and mountains, and generally enjoying the feeling of flying powerful planes in a gorgeous simulator. :slight_smile:

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Ok, yeah. I forgot about MP play :smiley:

Mostly I agree with you but for me it’s just the flight management and piloting aspect of it.

These are pretty unforgiving planes if you don’t look after engines etc properly.

My mainstay in the aim are GA flights but I like having a few warbirds in the hangar to mess around with.

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Hope this does so well that someday we see an Avenger, Dauntless, Helldiver…

Day one purchase!

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As I posted in another thread, I fly photo recon missions. Plenty to look at and to overfly - and it’s a mission you can realistically fly alone.

And as other have said, there’s also just the sheer pleasure of unstructured flying in a challenging, high-performance aircraft.

There’s a theme that keeps coming up in fighter pilots’ memoirs - “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just fly these wonderful airplanes and not have to worry about killing or being killed?” In V.M. Yeates’ novel Winged Victory, which is set in WW I, when it gets to be too much for his Sopwith Camel pilot main character, he goes off for an evening flight behind the lines just to get back to the pure joy of flying.

For me, that’s why.

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Hellcat. Hell yes! :slight_smile:

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Will this be making its way to Xbox?

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Thanks for your comments all!

We will likely bring it over to Xbox as soon as Asobo fixes the WASM issues :slight_smile:

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One of my favourite aircraft! Can’t wait to see how it looks in the Sim.

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That looks unmistakingly FlyingIron-grade (which is the the new term to be used for uncompromising big cut-above-the-rest warbird quality)!

And I can’t help but notice how you learn from others’ mistakes (which they don’t apparently learn themselves from) and put a lot of importance on sound! (Of course makes for a very good sales argument too :joy:)

Can’t wait to see the result

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Thanks. Love the Hellcat :+1:t2::slightly_smiling_face:
When I saw the announcement yesterday on msfsaddons.com I was even more thrilled to see this though:

Since we already have a ton of American warbirds as well as two Spitfires I am really looking forward to the Bf 109. Especially since this looks to be one of the late-war G or K models

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