Emerald Scenery Design & Friends Present:
The 1500R Sport - A Side Quest
Designed by Rotornut44, Mykrode (Got Friends), & Smitty (eSTOL)
The 1500R Sport
Our project is based on the Mini-Max 1500R Sport, which is a US Experimental – Amateur-built aircraft. And though it looks to be, it does not fall into the Ultralight category, as it’s empty weight exceeds the regulations by just 15 lbs (6.8 kg).
For the power-plant, we went with the Rotax 447, which is a 2-stroke putting out about 40 horses worth of power.
Although the real-life counterparts have since been mostly reengined, the 447 was decided upon due to the availability of resources, from data to sounds – which was a major factor for this project.
With it’s light weight, the 1500R has a takeoff roll under 100 ft (30 m) and a landing roll of around 200 ft (60 m). With our upgraded and larger 17″ tires, this makes for quite the capable aircraft on both soft-field and pavement. Though, it’s lack of suspension might make for more jarring off-airport landings.
Features
The 1500R is not designed to be a “study-level” aircraft, but that doesn’t mean that it’s hollow either. Our goal from the beginning was to create something fun and well rounded. Something that you can pull out of your hangar on a weekend and have a flight with some friends, while also having enough for those who prefer more systems depth.These more noteworthy features include:
- 12 hand-crafted liveries
- Custom Wwise Sounds
- 2-stroke choke simulation, including flooding (Optional + Persistent)
- A breakable prop, resulting in engine damage (Reset with Slew Mode)
- Multiplayer Smoke
- Headphone Simulation
- A togglable prop spinner (Persistent)
- Tinted glass (Optional + Persistent)
- Togglable Chocks
- Togglable Pitot Cover (Will affect airspeed if left on)
- Dynamic Vibration Simulation for gauges and various parts (Tunable Intensity + Persistent)
- VR Motion Control Support for Stick, Switches, & Levers
While mostly the same in function, it should be noted that the implementation of chocks and pitot cover is handled differently in 2024, and are a part of the sim’s preflight system. However, along with manually clicking them, these can be toggled on/off with the included Blueprint options. This is a nice quality of life feature made possible in SU4.
Release When?
The 1500R will be released for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 as a fully native, modular product.
At the moment, the aircraft is in the late stages of beta testing and we are hoping for a January release – though this is dependent on Microsoft since we are still waiting on the required localization file for Marketplace.
When ready, the 1500R Sport will be available through the Emerald Scenery Design website, ORBX, and Marketplace for PC, Xbox, and hopefully PS5 (when that Marketplace is available for devs) and will be listed at 14.99 USD.
A free 1 day rental will be available on 2024’s in-sim Marketplace either at the time of release or shortly after, if not possible at release.
This announcement thread is a slightly abridged copy of the original announcement available to read on the website, which adds a bit more backstory.
Happy New Year to all!
-RN44
