This package could never have come about without the kind help of two men who knew and flew the B-47 fifty years ago in the days of the Cold War.
Crew Chief Don Carey and Aircraft Commander David Russell were more than generous in sharing their knowledge with me. I have pestered Don and Dave for more than four months with emails and mail whizzing around between Australia, Texas and Florida, sometimes on a daily basis. "Don, tell me about the fuel system" or "What was the max landing weight, Dave?" would bring a useful answer within 24 hours. And it never stopped. Information, flight manual excerpts, operational insights and on and on. Dave and Don were patient and invaluable while they helped me shoe-horn a complex cockpit onto a single monitor screen. Any value in this B-47E panel is due to these gentlemen; any errors are mine alone. Thank you both very much. I couldn't have done it without you.
By the way, Don Carey is webmaster of the 40th Bomb Wing website, which is a mine of B-47 information and photos. Check it out at: www.40th-bomb-wing.com
So what did we end up with?
This is a complete B-47E aircraft and panel package for FS2004. It contains a re-release of Bill Holker's B-47E aircraft with updated animations and flight dynamic improvements to accurately simulate real world B-47 flight characteristics. There are 2D and VC panels by Glenn Duncan with 70+ custom gauges, most of them brand new to MSFS.
There are crew voices, realistic water injection and an animated B-47 bomb release now available for the first time.
The package also includes information for realistic military operations such as TACAN penetrations, Oil Burner Routes, drag chute landings, LABS (toss bombing) and more.
The installation is quite simple. Details are found in, of all places, the INSTALLATION.txt file.
I hope you enjoy flying this B-47 as much as I do.
