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| Boeing 717-200 By: Andy Medley |
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| Boeing 717-200 Manufactured: Perfect Flight Published: Perfect Flight Click on image's to enlarge. www.fs2000.org The McDonald - Boeing 717-200 did this aircraft ever stand a chance in the 100 seat market, just is the word made by McDonald Douglas who came to merge with Boeing back in 1997 the aircraft was already in first stage mode with the help of Boeing the aircraft became ready by mid 1999 orders had already been in place since 1995 some 3 years later the first rolled out and started its main flight. The aircraft then only carried out a small total of 156 aircraft and ceased production in 2006 some aircraft still fly today in the US and Spain.   The aircraft it’s self was a like for the Fokker and later MD-models such as the long out reach of the MD-80 nicknamed the Mad Dog. But the main aim for the 717-200 was to take over from outdated aircraft as the Dc-9 & others. In 2006 the aircraft was to disappear into a dark hold and plans of the aircraft locked away for life the end was near for the Former MD-85 so near that in 2006 Boeing took the decision to stop and concentrate more on other aircraft more stylish. A major difficulty with the 717 model was its lack of commonality with other Boeing aircraft. The 717 had no commonality with other aircraft, even prior MD-80 and DC-9 aircraft upon which it was based. The trend with aircraft manufacturers, particularly Airbus, was to make a "family" of aircraft with similar cockpits and systems, which would require only one "type-rating" for a crew. That way, whatever size of aircraft that was required on a particular route—even changing down to the day if necessary—could be used with any of the crew type-rated for the family. Although the 717 had operating costs 10% lower than the A318, airlines considering the 717 could not take advantage of the cost savings gained through commonality. Airbus used a commonality approach starting with their A320 narrow-body family (including A318, A319, and A321), and Boeing embraced this concept with their Next-Generation 737-600, -700, -800, and -900 models. Embraer, in their new E-Jet family, also took this approach, offering four regional aircraft in a common family, the largest of which had operational capabilities very close to the 717   Boeing 717-200: I was sort of amazed at how good the MD-85 / Boeing 717 looked when i first installed it yes i was wearing goggles at the time, i did hear people saying is it worth the money is it just another money making opportunity for someone, do we need another aircraft in flightsim OMG there are loads more upto date aircraft to fly why the B717. Well the B717 did only stop production in 2006 so it’s not that old the name its self makes it sound old. The B717 i feel is not needed in flightsim but still is welcome on my FSX or 2004 the aircraft model is a clever piece of work looks good and feels god in flight. Money is it worth the tag? €28.80 hell yes more than worth it’s price tag you do get a well worked model that fly’s / Sound / and landing wheels. Installation: In many ways the CD option can be the best as you always have it near the PC somewhere but the downloaded version that we was working from Umm i lost it straight after downloading it. It somehow went into my trash that’s not a problem i just took it out and installed the aircraft the option weather to install 2004 or FSx was from some installers come in two parts offering this. It was as simple ABC as always the install was sooth flowing apart from the bit where s said your FSX directory cannot be found its simple my FSX is on the D drive and the installer is defaulted to the C drive. The whole install took around 2 minutes at max to complete then you get this nice message saying it’s complete and ready to fly. Also with the aircraft after the install you get this nice 14 page manual to read but to be honest not much in there to read more advertising than anything. Aircraft Model: While the outside of the aircraft looks sounds the inside of the aircraft as some tell tale signs of freeware, the windows outside look great inside they look square and bland. More attention could have been spent inside making it better rather than having shiny tail fins and shiny wings. The other thing though small was the engines i like to start from dark and cold, but when i turned over the engines for the first time the smoke from the engines came from the front of the fuselage section of the aircraft. Just small things like this will wish i could haggle on the price down i have yet to see the FIX patch for these errors. Systems:  There are some systems onboard but you can only look at them, the build of the whole thing is more like an abacus product to be frank. The panel seems to have dropped out of an old 2004 aircraft basic panels and sound. The panel if you look over your shoulder look like a cur-plonk board. Many switches don’t work and you can press just nothing happens till it’s too late; sound seems too intense for the plain it’s self you feel like your sat on the engines rather than flying with them. Pricing & Overall Would you pay €28.80 the answer is yes the price does reflect a good aircraft im not saying great it’s just good the model is a class of its own and the sounds there on their own. But the aircraft is worth the tag its come to market with, you get 15 paints and a good flight model shame about the manual with only 14 pages and most of that is adverts for more of their products. Let the pictures do the talking for you as we let fly on this product for more than 5 hours we did find the overall aircraft fun and easy for a start and fly model. |
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