We're looking for new writers to join us!

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! No, it's a plane... a FREE plane!

by: Dave -
More On: Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator

They've done it again! Right on the heels of releasing the Denver area scenery via free DLC, IPACS has followed up with yet another free tidbit in the form a a no-cost airplane for Aerofly FS 2.

I don't know how they select any given airplane to be built into the game, but I do know for sure that hundreds of people will be.... disappointed. I honestly don't know what 's wrong with these people that comment on Steam store pages simply to whine that everything isn't free, somehow believing that products like these aren't being developed by charities. I would wager that I wouldn't have to read more than a dozen comments on this release that, rather than say thanks, instead complain about the choice of plane to model.

In this case, I cannot fathom how they came about the choice that they made, but I personally celebrate a more esoteric choice over yet another ubiquitous airliner or vanilla Cessna. 

Just to prove the point, I went there:

This new plane was ok to fly, but I REALLLY want another jumbo jet. Like an A380.

Why? It's pretty much the same autopilot, and that's all you really "fly" in those big jets. 

And another thing: the new plane is a BLAST to fly!

So, what is it? Don't feel bad if you've never heard of it: it's the Bücker Bü 133 JungmeisterSee? Bet you never heard of it.

The Jungmeister (Young master) was an advanced trainer of the Luftwaffe in the 1930s. It was a single-engine, single-seat biplane of wood and tubular steel construction and covered in fabric.

You have to have to understand the poorly architected "peace" after WWI, during which Germany was prohibited from building a modern air force. The early 1940's proved that they had been cheating pretty much all along. While the Jungmeister was presented as a competition aerobatics plane, it, along with a few other "peaceful" designs, were being built and used both to train pilots on high-performance aircraft and to train engineers how to design and build them.

That's all water under the bridge; the Jungmeister is a highly desirable classic, very similar to the Boeing Stearman on the American side. Those, however, are a dime a dozen. The Jungmeister stands out as a far more interesting choice.