Supplements (addons) released for Flight Simulator (FS9/FSX) simulating Concorde, despite their varying degrees of realism, have all suffered from the same problems: the lack of a tool to calculate performance and fuel.
Admittedly, this plane is very far cry from the others …
Successive authors have created very limited tools to make this possible.
Even renowned authors such as Christian Grill for whom I have a flawless admiration has not updated his fantastic software TOPCAT.
This gap in tools for FS gave me the idea to try my luck after reading the technical documentation of this magical plane.
After a careful survey of methods used by utilities for other similar aircraft, I realised that calculations for take-off and landing were based on fuel curves and numerous and complex graphs or tables of which there were too many. The use of tables is a relatively simple approach.
hat of curves and abacuses requires the double of work in the fact of having to transform at first these curves into tables. (Pierre’s comment: modified).
It is through this process that I started work on CPS in June 2011.
This is a long work, tiring source of errors, I gave up. (Pierre’s comment: modified )
The story of the birth of CPS is detailed on the main page of this blog.
CPS. What it is?:
For those who practice flight simulation, there are several categories:
The players: these are the most numerous. Their goal in this activity is to get on a plane or aircraft, and meet up for a ride using the minimum technical capabilities of the simulator.
The average user: This term has nothing insulting is the one who discovers aviation through this hobby. This knowledge is very limited, but seeks to advance their knowledge in the control of an aircraft or a navigation technique. Often, this type of user will advance to the following category (in my case there many years).
The Hard-Core Simmer Anglicism This describes the user who searches for the most perfect simulation, closest to reality. Let there be no mistake. FS can never reproduce the sensations in a real plane.
Each new version of FS makes us closer to the real reactions of an aircraft in flight, but the gap is still huge with real control.
The simers of the last category will try to put themselves in a situation as close as allows FS and the multiple tools developed around him of a true pilot, most often, liner pilot. (Pierre’s comment: is it better?)
The lastest aircraft modelled in FS are equipped with many advanced features close to the real thing. (ex: PMDG Boeing 737).
There are also programs that generate weather equivalent to real life and real time. A boon for those virtual pilots.
Scorecards or flight-deck instruments are commercially available. Throttle, joystick, rudder, control panels etc. complete.
Systems such as TrackIR that will change the view on the screen synchronized with the movements of the user’s head.
CPS is a tool that allows demanding fans to prepare Concorde flights to a level no other software can achieve.
The authors of the present Concordes (I only mention SSTSIM for FS9 and FSX / P3D FSLabs Concorde X) have created a utility to calculate the take-off and landing performance for the airports used in real-world operations together with the correct amount of fuel required.
I decided to develop CPS which can calculate the fuel, take-off and landing information plus engine settings and reheat times for any airport in FSX.
In addition, the loading of the aircraft can be varied quite considerably. The « Captain » can load different configurations as he sees fit:-
Flight deck crew of 3 to 5, 3 to 6 cabin crew and passenger distribution up to 100 in four areas of the aircraft. The distribution of baggage and cargo in 3 Concorde compartments can also be customised and saved as a user configuration.
How all this payload is distributed impacts on the aircraft’s centre of gravity (CG) reflecting the real-world situation. Fuel would have to be moved by the Flight Engineer for the correct CG before take-off and at various points through the flight.
Multiple parameters can be changed by the user in preparation for a flight. CPS will calculate whether take-off is possible and if it is provide a comprehensive document for the crew to use in setting up the aircraft for the flight.
That said it all, CPS, that’s it!
Pierre