CFS2 Bell YFM-1A "Airacuda"
This aircraft was developed as a long range interceptor and bomber destroyer. It carried a crew of 5 and had heavy armarment consisting of 2 forward firing 37mm. cannons and several machine guns located around the midsection. It first flew in 1937. A total of 13 were built (in 3 different versions). The Air Corps lost interest in this concept when it became obvious we were going to have to combat much faster and more nimble single engine designs. The XFM-1 was a tail dragger and had large blisters for the machine guns. Nine YFM-1's were produced which were also tail draggers but had flush windows at the machine gun locations. Three YFM-1A's were produced which had the flush windows but a tricycle gear. This is the version I chose to model. I found drawings at Bob's Air Doc's which I believe date back to Air Trails magazine. This FSDSv2 model was compiled directly into CFS2 and is not for any other sim. I gave it a bit of a shine by adding specular colors to the base material in FSDSv2. This type of "shine" works in CFS2 whereas reflective textures done with alpha channels don't.
I created a .dp file which has the cannons and machine guns pointed the right way. I am a total "newbie" when it comes to .dp files so I would be delighted if someone wanted to create a more elaborate file.
INSTALLATION: Unzip CfsCuda.zip into a temporary folder. Copy the folder Bell Airacuda and paste it into the Aircraft folder of CFS2. It will show in the aircraft selection list as XFM-1.
PANEL and SOUND: I included the P-38F panel and aliased the P-38 sound; both planes had 2 Allison engines.
LEGAL: This project is released as freeware. You may modify it, repaint it, etc., upload to another website as long as it is not for profit. You need my written permission to use any of these files for commercial purposes; otherwise just give me credit for the original design. This airplane should not hurt your computer but I am not responsible if it causes problems.
