Today, I am featuring a brand new addon released yesterday, January 27th, 2009.





History (courtesy of Wikipedia):

The Piaggio PD.808 was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Long Beach, California, as a business jet. No orders were received, and the complete project was bought by Piaggio, which flew the first prototype in August 1965. Piaggio also failed to secure any worthwhile commercial interest, but a few examples were taken by the Italian Air Force.

Only 24 examples of this type, with low-set wings and aft-mounted turbojet engines, were produced, and 22 of these went to the Italian Air Force. The first aircraft were configured for the utility role, but the last six aircraft were completed as electronic platforms with cabin accommodation for specialist electronic intelligence equipment and its three operators.

The Addon:

This FS2004 representation, produced as freeware by Mario Noriega, is what I consider to be a top-notch simulation of a relatively unknown aircraft.
This aircraft is filled to the brim with special features, and some unique systems simulation, which, in my opinion, create a nice balance between complexity and single-pilot usability.

(There is also a separate version for FSX!)

Cockpit/Systems:



To get to the point: You can start this aircraft just as you would  in the real thing. Most, if not all, systems are simulated in both the 2D, and the completely clickable virtual cockpit.

When flying this aircraft, one of the first things that you have to take into consideration is the air temparture in your current virtual location. To put it simply, this aircraft does not do well in hot and high situations, and if you push it too far, it will warn you, and then bite you. Running the engines too hot? Then take note of the oil-temperature warning lights popping up on the annunciator, followed shortly thereafter by "engine hot" lights, coinciding with a massive "master caution" light, that you really cannot miss. If you continue to push it, it'll just shut down on you.
Other features include a working cockpit/cabin pressurization system, working windshield wipers that can be set to either low or high, and appear moving in the 2d, VC, and exterior model, special engine parameter modes to assist in climb performance, and an automatic, built-in pop up checklist, which lays out how to operate this plane, so anyone can fly it!

Flying in poor weather? Don't forget to turn on your deicing equipment. Most simmers are familiar with their pitot tube freezing up on less complex aircraft, rendering the airspeed indicator inoperative. That's all you usually have to worry about in those birds. With this one however, you can experience a feature that I have never seen before in any other FS2004 aircraft. WINDOW ICING! Actual ice can be visible in the 2d cockpit, virtual cockpit, and exterior model! Again, I have never seen someone incorporate this feature in 2004, and this just amazed me.

Icing Example:
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/pd5.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/pd6.jpg

This plane simply has so many features, that I will not try to even cover them all. You just have to try the plane, and discover them all for yourself!



Sounds:

Sounds like a 1960's corporate jet to me! Uses its own custom sounds, and has engine smoke at high rpm's to go with it!
It's smoky, loud, and pretty good quality to my ears!

Liveries:

Three liveries are included, and all three are of Italian Air Force aircraft.

You get the Early Air Force livery, with a white top, gray bottom, and some smatterings of day-glow orange.

Late Air Force livery, with overall dark gray, with the same areas covered in orange.

Commemorative livery. Really wild black and yellow paint job. Doesn't have the Air Force roundels, so you could pass this one off as a private plane for your adventures.

Performance:

It's a 1960's corporate jet, and really acts like it when in a climb. Since you have to take into consideration your engine temps, it can really take a while to get to a high cruising altitude, and overall, there are definitely faster aircraft out there, but it behaves very realistically from my estimation, and provides the user with a unique flying experience each time, especially if you use real world weather. It's a straight wing jet, so cruising speed is low, and gas usage is high, but it's FUN, and that's all that counts in the virtual world! High flap angles are available, along with the previously pictured drag-shoot, so slowing down on final, and then on rollout, should not be a problem.
I haven't tried any aerobatics with it, but from my flight experience with it, it can probably roll just fine, but I would not recommend trying loops.



In conclusion, I urge everyone to try their hand at this new, fantastic addon. It has it's own complexities with it, but the pop up checklists and flight manual really make things simple. (The gauges are in the English language too, so that helps.)
It is a unique and rewarding aircraft to fly, and is suitable for a wide variety of missions in your virtual world, whether that is FS2004, or FSX.

-Sean

Just flew this plane for the first time, and I really love it.

I had to load the flight three times, because when going through the start-up, I would turn on the battery switch, and fiddle around for so long, looking for the switches and knobs, that I'd end up draining the battery

Did a short, succesful flight, quite nice. Upon landing, I wanted to know, just how on-the-numbers it was. So I switched on relight, firewalled the throttles, and got 1000-2000 feet up, before my engines caught fire and died

Quite nice...