FlyingIron Simulations' Lockheed P-38L Expected by Mid-July

Classic warbird developer FlyingIron Simulations has published a new blog post about their Lockheed P-38L, which has been in development for the past several months.

The post opened up with an apology about their silence but reassured users that the release of the aircraft is due very soon.

Writing to their website, Dan and Alex Kassabian explained: "We've had a few requests for some updates on the P-38; today we are here to deliver on that. Firstly we apologise for the radio silence recently; we've been hard at work trying to continually enhance the quality of the aircraft as much as possible before we release.

"Speaking of release, let's get that out of the way first. Although we announced earlier that we were hoping to have released by now, we have ultimately decided to keep working on development for just alittle while longer. We can't give a solid date right now, but we are planning in terms of days, not weeks & months, if that gives you any idea :) We expect to have you all flying around in the fork-tail devil before Mid July at the very latest.

"Ultimately the reason for the delay was quality; while we have been very proud of development so far, maintaining our standard of ensuring each release is better than the last, we decided we want to take a bigger 'leap' with the P-38 and really push development into the next tier of quality. This means for you, you will receive the best possible rendition of the P-38, ready to fly on release day."

Art is an integral part of the success of FlyingIron's products, and the duo let the screenshots attached to the post say it all.

"Pictures speak a thousand words; as you can see the artwork is really shaping up now into the final stages. Currently work is focused on animation, finishing up & polishing the interior/exterior and final touches on complex areas such as the landing gear bay. After that, we will power through livery creations, lighting & particle FX."

Writing about the flight model, they continued: "Work here is currently focused on advanced drag simulation; specifically by simulating the impacts of various coolant flaps/shutters, external tanks and other moveable bodies on the aircraft. This is almost complete, once that is done we will enhance dive compressibility modelling & finish fine-tuning airfoil performance across the Reynolds number range."

In terms of system simulation, the Kassabians said they had completed their custom plugin code for the fuel system, and that refinements to the hydraulics are being taken to the "next level".

"In order to do so, we will be overriding X-planes control system logic completely and creating our own flight control system that is integrated with our hydraulic simulation to create a significantly more realistic flight control system.

"This allows us not only to more realistically simulate features such as the aileron boost, differential movement and hydraulic limitations, but also opens the doorway for us to implement damage features as well as maintenance options (TBD if these damage/maintenance features will be available on release).

"Work has also begun on implementing X-planes native weapons realistically, as well as continued development of the UI tablet. The most exciting of which is our new 'checklist app' - it contains all of your necessary checklists, in one convenient place, ready to be used in-flight with no popup windows. It is almost complete; currently we are working on making the checklist interactive by swapping the text colour to indicate whether a checklist item has been completed by you or not (detected automatically). This should help you get through your first attempt of our new dynamic start-up system."

Earlier this month, FlyingIron released a handful of new previews, but not before those released towards the end of May.

Keep up-to-date with FlyingIron through their website or Facebook page.

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