The Boeing Stratocruiser is a double-deck, pressurised, four-engine, medium to long range, high altitude, high speed, commercial transport plane. The aircraft is designed for a normal gross weight of 147,000 pounds, a high speed of approximately 350 mph, a service ceiling of 34,000 feet, and a maximum range of approximately 4,000 miles. To its passengers, it flew them in first class comfort higher, faster, and farther than anything before.

The 377 paved Boeing’s entry into the airline business, and you can still see this technology in use today. The Stratocruiser and its massive Pratt & Whitney R4360 engines, represents the highest step in the evolution of aircraft piston-engine technology. These engines were so powerful, that this huge Stratocruiser set the transcontinental speed record from Seattle to D.C.; beating both the Lockheed Constellation and the North American P51 Mustang. Even by today’s standards this aircraft has amazing performance. There is also a Pregnant Guppy variant that was custom-made to transport rocket components for the Saturn V to NASA. You have to see it fly to believe it.

A2A Simulations has crafted and pioneered many new technologies for this aircraft which has become the flagship of the Wings of Silver line for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Never before has the team worked so diligently to produce what we feel, and you may agree, is the most accurate representation of a true “classic” airliner.

What is Captain of the Ship?
Real pilots will tell you that no two aircraft are the same. Even taking the same aircraft up from the same airport to the same location will result in a different experience. For example, you may notice one day an engine is running a bit hotter than usual and you might just open your cowl flaps a bit more and be on your way, or maybe this is a sign of something more serious developing under the hood. Regardless, you expect these things to occur in a simulation just as they do in real life. This is Accu-sim – it puts the gauge back in the game.

Realism does not mean having a difficult time with your flying. While Captain of the Ship is created by pilots, it is built for everyone. This means everything from having a professional crew there to help you manage the systems, to an intuitive layout, or just the ability to turn the system on or off with a single switch. However, if damage is enabled and the needles are in the red, there will be consequences. It is no longer just an aircraft, it’s a simulation.

The “Connie,” as it was universally and affectionately called (much to the dismay of Eddie Rickenbacker of WWI fame who, as the owner of Eastern Airlines, thought the name to be too effeminate) was a spectacular and singular aeronautical design from the first rude sketch of “Excalibur” to the last L-1649 “Starliner.” Gathering many firsts and breaking many records in its almost five decades-long useful lifetime, Constellation consistently stands out from her sister airliners both visually and functionally. Sadly, the many luminous stars embodying this “Constellation” were ultimately eclipsed when at their brightest by the urgent, inexorable force of progress which saw the end of the age of the long-distance piston engine airliners and the birth of the big, jet-powered transports. This new era of air-transportation in the U.S. Began on 26 October 1958 when Pan American Airlines (Pan Am) flew a Boeing 707 with 111 passengers from New York to London. Soon, the jet-powered Douglas DC-8, Convair 880 and Sud Aviation “Caravelle” joined the 707 and long-range piston airliners were through.

Even so, there are many, this writer among them, who posit that even whilst swifter, no kerosene burning aluminum tube has ever come close to matching Connie’s superb grace and poise. Her story is full of ironies and surprises, of Geniuses, Presidents and Pioneers. You see, there once was this fabulously wealthy, incandescently brilliant, eccentric movie mogul, aviator and airline owner who had an idea for an airplane… – Excerpt from Constellation manual history by Mitchell Glicksman © 2016