Freeware aircraft are being released to the FS world almost every day. But it isn’t often that one comes across jaw-dropping freeware packages, such as this very one featured. This package is, however, an ex-Payware model, although still retaining many qualities of Payware packages. Alas, it is freeware, and for those “fighter jockeys” amongst us, this has to be the package for you – it’s one of the best freeware aircraft I’ve seen in a long time.

IRIS Ex-Payware Tornado GR4

Date reviewed – 22nd / 23rd January 2007

System Specs 

• 64mb nVidia GeForce FX 5200 (for laptop)
• 768MB RAM
• Pentium IV 2.8GHz Processor

To review this scenery, I’ll be splitting it up into many different categories. I’ll be taking a look at the panel / VC, external model, flight dynamics and sounds, each being a score out of 10 (therefore a total score of 40 - I’ll be giving the 2D panel a score of 5 and the VC a score of 5).



Panel



The panel is a good quality panel. It has a HUD and a GPS in-built which is very handy when flying in poor conditions. It’s also a mix of a photoreal panel (the top half of it) and the remainder appears to have been manually made. The panel gets a respectable 3 out of 5 from me.

VC



The VC is a very good one indeed. All of the gauges are modeled in the VC, some of which are clickable, the HUD and GPS are still there, and also you can move around the VC to the back seat of the Tornado (the navigator / weapons operator’s panel) so it can be good fun to record yourself flying, move into the back seat and enjoy a free ride in a Tornado. The VC gets a great 4 out of 5 from me.

Overall, the Panel / VC gets a very good 7 out of 10 from me. The panel is good to fly from when navigating, but the VC provides an alternate way to fly, with fantastic views and a sense of realism.




This certain package comes with about 10 or so different Tornados, each from different squadrons. There are also about 7 different types of model to choose from, these being:

• AI Model (has no VC and when you retract gear the wings swing backwards)
• Clean Payload (no armaments)
• SEAD Model
• CAP
• Range Training
• Standard Loadout
• Precision Strike
• Standoff loadout

(or something along those lines).



The model is fantastic and goes into great detail. The fuel probe extends (Shift+E+3), the wings swing and the ordnance moves with them, you can still see the pilots and some gauges in Spot view and there are many other goodies. You can also see (above) that when on the ground and the engines have been shut off and canopy opened, a stepladder appears which is a nice little addition to the model and is good for screenshooting.

Overall, the external model and textures are awarded 10 out of 10 from me as I couldn’t ask for anything more, the textures are brilliant and the Tornado looks fabulous.

Part 2