Thranda Design has recently added a new airplane to their Dynamic Generation Series lineup: the Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander, a British light utility aircraft released in 1969.

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The BN-2A is an evolution of the Britten-Norman BN2, which took off for the first time in 1965. With aerodynamic and flight equipment improvements, along with a slightly more powerful engine, the BN-2A turned good into better. The engines and its robust construction allow the aircraft to operate from unprepared airstrips, making it a popular choice for remote and inaccessible locations where traditional runways may be limited or absent. It soon became the airplane of choice for humanitarian missions, surveillance, aerial survey, and commercial island hops.

Seating up to nine passengers and featuring an easy way to reconfigure for cargo transportation, medical evacuation, or any task at hand, the BN-2A is versatile.

Powered by two piston engines, the Lycoming 0-540 or the Textron Lycoming TIO-540, it cruises at 140 knots, with a total range of 800 nautical miles. The combination of fuel efficiency and low operating costs has made it popular worldwide. As of late 2019, 800 islanders were still flying out of the 1,280 built.

The add-on features a fully configurable 3D instrument panel, full VR compatibility, over 50 instruments to choose from, 3D lighting, a dynamic livery editor, 8K high-resolution PBR textures, individual functional circuit breakers, detailed and accurate flight dynamics, an advanced FMOD-based sound system, and more. The complete feature list follows down below:

Special features:

• True X-Plane 12 Aircraft
• FULLY configurable 3D instrument panel.
• Fully VR Compatible
• Over 50 instruments to choose from! (Including Aspen EFD 1000, and support for RealityXP GTN650 and GTN750)
• Move any instrument to any location on the panel, or even between pilot and copilot's panel!
• Comes with 5 panel presets, but can easily be expanded by moving instruments around, using a simple and intuitive interface.
• Lighting is fully 3D, and dynamically moves along with the instruments, as you configure the panel.
• Ability to assign a lighting index to individual instruments, to allow different lighting knobs to be assigned on a per-instrument basis.
• Save your own presets, and even share them with the community!
• Almost every instrument can be popped up or popped out as a 2D floating window! They can be placed on other monitors as well.
• Instruments can be moved in 3D directly, on a 2D pop-up preview window, or by numerical entry for precise placement.
• GNS430 and 530 can be swapped out, but a restart of the plane is required, as 430s and 530s are mutually exclusive in terms of compatibility in X-Plane
• Dynamic livery editor (like in the Kodiak, the Beaver, the Wilga, the Caravan, the C206, the C337, and the Pilatus PC-6)
• Full PBR control! Create stunning metallic liveries, or matte, sand-blasted look in mere seconds!
• Additional control over dirt/scratches, adjustable in real-time to dial in the exact desired amount of wear and tear.  
• Create "virtual" liveries, based on two basic common design layouts (Modern and Classic), and assign any colour to any available paint segment.
• Quickly create preview of livery in real-time, using intuitive controls.  Previews include visualization of metallic materials and dirt overlays. 
• Apply selected livery in real-time, right in the sim, without the need to even touch a 3rd party image editor!
• Option to change the tail number in real-time, or disable it altogether. (Enter a "space" instead of a callsign number to create a blank tail number.)
• Easily and quickly create dozens of paint schemes in-sim!
• Also includes 8 traditionally painted liveries, all visible in a convenient pre-selection preview window.
• Ability to swap pilot/co-pilot figures
• Uses SkunkCrafts Updater.  Option to participate in Beta program, via checkbox in SkunkCrafts Updater. 
• Excellent 8k hi-res textures with realistic PBR materials, featuring true-to-life plate deformation and to-the-rivet precision.
• Windshield ice and rain effects
• Individual functional circuit breakers.

Feature-rich elegant fly-out menu with the following features:

• Electric tug, with in-panel controls to move forward/backward at the desired speed, and steer proportionally
• Control over chocks, individual tie-downs, covers, internal lights, external lights, etc.
• Option to enable/disable Cargo Pod, with realistically simulated weight, momentum, rotational inertia, and drag characteristics.
• Option to start up running (all systems ready), or cold-and-dark, for realistic startup procedures, directly from this fly-out menu.
• Control landing lights, strobes, beacon, and nav lights via fly-out menu
• Detailed weight and balance manager with visual chart, individual passenger seat weight control, Lbs/KG unit toggle, CG control, external tank control, and the option to save and load configuration.
• Show or hide individual seats, to create a hybrid passenger/cargo version.
• When seats are hidden, cargo fills the space when weight is added via the fly-out menu.
• Multiple camera snap points, above and beyond what's available by default in X-Plane, so you can perform your walk around checks.
• Adjust your camera's Field of View without having to go to an X-plane menu, allowing for real-time adjustments.
• Audio mixer: individually control audio channels in real-time, so you can adjust volumes while hearing them play.
• Slew control: move your plane around the world, temporarily bypassing flight physics.  Includes ground mode and air mode.
• Dynamic panel control page, with a separate view for the entire panel layout preview, or a per-instrument view, allowing for fine-tuning of instrument position, as well as copy-paste function to quickly replace instruments.
• DynaFeel panel: Dial in precisely how you wish for the controls to react as a function of speed.
• Option to swap pilot and co-pilot
• Optional de-ice system
• Optional bubble windows
• Optional tundra tires

Flight dynamics and systems:

• Detailed and accurate flight dynamics and weight and balance, with accurate takeoff, climb, cruise, and landing performance.
• Tie-downs and chocks actually keep the plane from moving, even in high winds.
• DynaFeel: controls that simulate how strongly the control surfaces are affected by oncoming air, and how much strength would be needed to overcome these forces.  

Advanced FMOD-based sound system:

• High fidelity, multi-track sounds with smooth, finely tuned transitions (actually having calculated the precise beat frequency for each section, to minimize "muddy" transition sounds), and amazing atmospheric effects.
• Individual volume control over different aspects of the sound experience, adjustable in real-time (while listening to the sounds)
• Panning around the plane in exterior view yields awesome 3D audio effects, including "blade slapping" sound when view is perpendicular to prop
• Far away sounds include aerodynamic interaction effects between engines.
• Individual buttons and switches in the cockpit each have their own unique sound.
• Engine has typical cool-down ticking sound, based on engine temperature.
• Sounds actually give you clues as to what's happening under the hood.  
• Outside wind intensity is affected by slip and AoA. (The more the surface area of the fuselage is hit by oncoming wind, the louder the sounds)
• Doors and windows opening, let outside sounds in

It’s available on the X-Plane.Org Store for roughly $34.95, requiring at least 2.8 GB of free hard disk space to install.

Shout out to Poptart for the news scoop! Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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