iniBuilds T-33 Jet Trainer

Looking forward to this!

11 Likes

Aiming for a mid August release - brilliant, better start saving up

1 Like

hopefully makes it to the Xbox

1 Like

Real T-33 cockpit shown in the inibuilds trailer:

Cockpit by inibuilds shown for about 0.3 seconds of the 11 minutes trailer:

What a shame.

3 Likes

There will be a classic steam gauge cockpit as well.

But agree that a mixed steam + modern version would be better than the all-glass variant.

4 Likes

If they classic steam gauge cockpit is in the style of the Mu-2 we are going to be disgusted.

I don’t know they show one cockpit in the video and then model another one. And I’m 100% sure the cockpit looks horrible because in the whole 11 minute video it is show for less than 1 second.

2 Likes

From their forum post linked in the first post.

7 Likes

Restoration jobs by different owners will get different avionics packages. What you see in the screenshot from the video is certainly nothing close to what came from the factory. In fact, even doing an image search for “T-33 Original Cockpit” will yield several different variations of steam gauge placement. In fact, with so many owners doing so many restorations, I’d be willing to bet that if you lined up 10 T-33’s side by side, you’d have 10 different panel layouts.

6 Likes

Both type of cockpits were show in the video, with the notation, the you could choose between them. This is how it looks:

2 Likes

Yup and neither looks like the real plane shown in the very same video.

3 Likes

Because the real plane is the owner’s (Gregory “Wired” Colyer, who’s interviewed at length in the video) particular mod. As @tclayton2k points out above, there are probably as many cockpit variants out there as there are airplanes.

I appreciate the classic version but speaking personally, I suspect I’ll get some use out of the all-glass one as well - given that my sense of nostalgia doesn’t extend to flying into hillsides in a period-authentic way. A lesson I learned flying the A2A civilian Mustang is that the airplane doesn’t stop being a P-51 (or in this case a T-33) just because of what’s in the panel.

Again, that’s a personal take. I’m glad they’re giving us a choice.

7 Likes

Even when the aircraft was in active service, the branches couldn’t standardize on a cockpit layout either. Check out the panel diagram on this site alone.

http://aviation.watergeek.eu/t33-panel.html

8 Likes

That top photo of the ‘real’ cockpit is a modern adaptation and is almost as far removed from an original T-33 cockpit as the Inibuilds image below.

5 Likes

As has already been said, you won’t find any airworthy T-33s with the same panel layout. All of them have been modified to various degrees.

In this article you’ll see a T-33 with a glass cockpit very similar to Inibuilds version:

I’m super excited about the announcement of the T-33. It’s one of my favorite jets. I’m sure I’ll use the classic cockpit most of the time, but it’s awesome to have the option to switch to a modern panel.

5 Likes

This panel looks pretty close to what we had in the Canadian CT-33 from what I remember
but it’s been a long time since this old gal and I went flying together!

3 Likes

I’m so excited after this video! SWS’s MSFS aircraft are top-notch, and the modeling looks beautiful here. Love the option to fly an authentic 50’s version and then swap the cockpit to modern instruments for cross-country sightseeing under that beautiful bubble canopy.

And an actual panel:

Essentially identical other than the panel background color and the variations (realistic) in instrument placements. But by all means, it wouldn’t be this forum if the pre-release discussion wasn’t focused on negativity. Sigh.

As for the glass panel looking different in the interview T-33, do you have the Reno pack? Have you seen the variations in real world planes when they’re updated with modern avionics? There’s not a standard for glass cockpit updates.

This is a Bolivian T-33 panel from 2007:
image

5 Likes

Also, from the SWS Discord post:

So it sounds like it’s “study level” instrument/control/engine systems recreation. With guidance from a 3000-hour aerobatic T-33 pilot.

So I’m gonna be cautiously
 okay, not even cautiously
 optimistic. As a 50’s/60’s era jet fan. I’m psyched.

5 Likes

To say I’m excited for the release of this aircraft is an understatement, and it put me in a very good mood when I saw the news of this project first thing this morning. I’m very much looking forward to having such a high quality and detailed T-33/CT-133 in MSFS.

The modern cockpit/instrument panel appears to combine, in a balanced manner, elements of what you see in some of the T-33s and CT-133s flying today, but not necessarily a perfect match to any one aircraft. That’s how the cockpit of the A2A “civilian” P-51D was modeled as well - it wasn’t accurate to any one aircraft, but combined elements together from a number of modern restored examples.

This example, which was restored by Heritage Aero, is the closest I’ve seen to looking like the layout captured by IniBuilds/SWS. You can compare directly to one of the screenshots in this posting: Summer Surprises: Launch of the iniBuilds Premier Aircraft Series - iniBuilds Announcements - iniBuilds Forum

And a T-33A cockpit, configured more/less as it appeared in the 1950s.

5 Likes

If you read the article, there are two variants they will provide. The cockpit you show there is the modern variant. The photo you have is of the classic variant.

1 Like

Not really, neither the modern or the classic cockpit match the plane shown in the video that has a customized cockpit.

1 Like