The Supermarine Spitfire is one of the truly legendary aircraft, not just of World War II, but of all time. A brilliant design, the basic Spitfire wing and fuselage were able to be refined and improved over and over again into many different configurations during the course of World War II, and each excelled in its own right.
The Spitfire was designed by R. J. Mitchell, an aeronautical engineer of stellar talent who had previously designed such aircraft as the Supermarine S6B, which won the Schneider Trophy in 1931. Borrowing from the developments of others, including the low-wing, monocoque design which came from the United States, Mitchell crafted a superb basic design which stands to this day as one of the greatest piston fighters in aviation history. Mitchell envisioned a light, maneuverable craft with low drag, elliptical wings, and a broad performance envelope. The result was the Spitfire, a capable, lethal, yet forgiving aircraft that ultimately proved more than equal to anything the Germans could throw at it, including the vaunted Focke-Wulf 190.
The Spitfire had a number of design characteristics which set it apart from other contemporary fighter aircraft. The Merlin engine, the elliptical wing, the well-harmonized controls, and the versatile wing platform all worked together to create a package that was perhaps unmatched in terms of its immediate effectiveness and its potential to be developed further. Unlike the Japanese Zero, which was obsolete by 1943, the Spitfire was just coming to its prime. Chief among the features that set the Spit apart from other aircraft was its wing, which served multiple purposes. The elliptical planform and relatively broad root chord allowed a thinner airfoil section, reducing drag while preserving lift, which led to a very low wing loading. This increased top speed, preserved a low stalling speed, increased the service ceiling, and provided excellent low-speed agility. But the broad wing chord also allowed the convenient fitting of formidable armament such as multiple 20mm cannon and heavy machine guns.
The Spitfire last saw combat in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war, where Spitfires from both sides were pitted against one another. But the honor which will always distinguish this singular aircraft is its superb service during the Battle of Britain, where it — along with the Hawker Hurricane — helped to fend off German designs for invasion of Great Britain. For that, it will always be remembered.
What is the philosophy behind Accu-Sim?
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 your 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 life. This is Accu-Sim, where no two flights are ever the same.
Realism does not mean having a difficult time with your flying. While Accu-Sim 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 Accu-Sim is enabled and the needles are in the red, there will be consequences. It is no longer just an aircraft, it’s a simulation.
Actions Lead to Consequences
Your A2A Simulations Spitfire is a complete aircraft with full system modeling. However, flying an aircraft as large and complex as the A2A Spitfire requires constant attention to the systems. The infinite changing conditions around you and your aircraft have impact on these systems. As systems operate both inside and outside their limitations, they behave differently. For example, the temperature of the air that enters your carburetor has a direct impact on the power your engine can produce. Pushing an engine too hard may produce just slight damage that you, as a pilot, may see as it just not running quite as good as it was on a previous flight. You may run an engine so hot, that it catches fire. However, it may not catch fire; it may just quit, or may not run smoothly. This is Accu-Sim – it’s both the realism of all of these systems working in harmony, and all the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, unpredictability of it all. The end result is when flying in an Accu-Sim powered aircraft, it just feels real enough that you can almost smell the avgas.
Your Aircraft Talks
We have gone to great lengths to bring the internal physics of the airframe, engine, and systems to life. Now, when the engine coughs, you can hear it and see a puff of smoke. If you push the engine too hard, you can also hear signs that this is happening. Just like an actual pilot, you will get to know the sounds of your aircraft, from the tires scrubbing on landing to the stresses of the airframe to the canopy that is cracked opened.
Be Prepared – Stay Out of Trouble
The key to successfully operating your Spitfire, or any high performance aircraft for that matter, is to stay ahead of the curve and on top of things. Aircraft are not like automobiles, in the sense that weight plays a key role in the creation of every component. So, almost every system on your aircraft is created to be just strong enough to give you, the pilot, enough margin of error to operate safely, but these margins are smaller than those you find in an automobile. So, piloting an aircraft requires both precision and respect of the machine you are managing.
It is important that you always keep an eye on your oil pressure and engine temperature gauges. On cold engine starts, the oil is thick and until it reaches a proper operating temperature, this thick oil results in much higher than normal oil temperatures. In extreme cold, once the engine is started, watch that oil pressure gauge and idle the engine as low as possible, keeping the oil pressure under 120psi.
The oil and coolant temperature gauges are critical throughout your flight. Idling too long on the pavement will overheat this Spitfire because it’s cooling radiator is inadequate. Plan to be off the ground in under ten minutes. Don’t let your engine exceed 100 degrees Celsius before your takeoff roll.
Once airborne, you will want to avoid steep climbs, especially in hot weather, to keep good airflow to your radiator. You will also want to keep your radiator opened at all times during flight, adjusting it to maintain temperatures around 100 degrees if possible, never more than 120 degrees. High engine power increases both water and oil temperatures, but oil is also heated up quite a bit by engine friction (RPM). So if you are running hot oil temperatures, you may wish to also decrease your engine RPM.
LICENSE OPTIONS:
Academic;
This version is for academic users in Prepar3D, in accordance to the Lockheed Martin Prepar3d academic license. This software is to be used for flight simulation only, and not to be used for real world flight training. For real world flight training, use our commercial license which is intended to be used with flight simulators authorized by the FAA while using our software.
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Professional;
This version is for professional users in Prepar3D, in accordance to the Lockheed Martin Prepar3d professional license. This software is to be used for flight simulation only, and not to be used for real world flight training. For real world flight training, use our commercial license which is intended to be used with flight simulators authorized by the FAA while using our software.
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Commercial;
This software is licensed for commercial use for one year with the option to extend annually for $299.
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New licensing terms and tailor made solutions are available for Commercial customers please contact us for details.
Cygon Parrot –
If you are an English kid, particularly of the three immediate decades after World War Two, then this aircraft is a legend that in popular memory continued to overshadow all of its hangar mates. There were the inevitable plastic kits, oil paintings, paper cut outs, and wind up rubber powered flying models that you could get in any corner newspaper shop, in almost every home you might visit. And in that home, even by the early 1970’s, any moment you might notice the tribute, would elicit a eulogy in its praise. England was proud of their Spitfire, without a doubt. The writer of this review is one of those kids, lifted high on the excitement of these tales, and in part, the dreams of this aircraft were responsible for him being a real world pilot himself, now. Yet the funny thing is, despite having played flight simulations since they first appeared, I have never actually had a Spitfire in any simulator previously.
I am now glad I did not, and saved the best for last. I bought this product simply to participate in a community event. It takes the legend from its historical pedestal of awe, and gives you an aircraft to operate. Being my first A2A product, I was thoroughly impressed by the attention to detail, regarding the limitations and necessary procedures. Apart from what would usually be the most common point of interest among simmers, “how does it handle, and is it a good representation of the aircraft’s qualities?” (to which it stands all accounts I have read or listened to, regarding), I was further struck by how well it simulates the reward in range and endurance for proper handling of the engine parameters to both look after it effectively, and to obtain from it the best possible efficiency in cruise.
To be flown seriously, by the simmer with a professional attitude, I am not too disturbed about not firing the guns. It is the operating experience of the aircraft that I wanted. I believe I got it, to as high a fidelity as is possible through a computer simulation.
Well done, A2A, with my thanks!
steve –
You are flying a piece of history with this aircraft. A piece of history, flying for a nation that stopped on its own, an evil regime running rampant across Europe and possibly the world. Think about that for a minute and then, get this Spitfire. It’s the most accurate version for any flight sim that you can get anywhere, period.
tim –
The legend is back! It’s great to have the A2A Accu-Sim Spitfire for P3Dv4 as well. The rear-view mirror is bit hard on the frames but a working mirror is still a great improvement. The reworked flightdynamics are also much better now. Another great A2A addon.
Gryf –
If you want to fly it, you have to push your elbows. The first one at the start and the first one in the parking lot, no matter how many planes are waiting for permission from the tower, you must be the first one.
If you will not be the first you will explode. In addition, a nice plane with a nostalgic historical memory.
It is a pity that the weaponry does not work.
graaant –
Another first class model from A2A, making full use of P3DV4’s dynamic lighting, and with some compelling new features, including a fully reflective rear-view mirror. At first, after reading some early comments and also not quite clear why — compared to, say, the A2A Texan and other recent models — the aircraft’s flight dynamics, like the FSX version, seems to me to lack a bit of character, or “feel”, and also has relatively heavy controls (famously, experienced pilots talked of only having to “think” of a movement to have the Spitfire respond) , I thought that it might be just a FSX portover, but with more flying it’s clear how much the new version has been improved. And, at $10 for a month …
davidpatrickmcclean –
I bought this a couple of days ago. It’s the first vintage fighter I have bought since the F1 P51 along time ago. I am not disappointed! after figuring out how not to wreck it it turns out to be a lot of fun to fly. It’s kinda trick to take off and land a taildragger. You have to get the tail of the ground with stick forward and balance it on the main until you have enough speed to take off. Landing if i remember correctly all wheels touch down together so you can see the runway at the beginning or the ed of the flight. It just takes a little practice. Its a lot of fun to fly. The only thing I didn’t like I having to open the Shift +5 moving map for navigation. That’s an immersion killer. It would be nice if A2A adds a hand held GPS on suction cup stuck the canopy. Apart from that it is awesome.
jcagle23 –
If you have never purchased the A2A Spitfire, this is probably worth acquiring. A2A has been more than generous with upgrades to date, but for those of us who owned the previous version, this should be a $10-20 upgrade fee. Several significant issues exist that would not be present in a ‘new’ product that has been built from the ground up.
– The damping of the roll and yaw axis can make or break the character of an airplane, and (pre-stall) this flies on rails just like the original A2A Spitfire. Newer A2A aircraft such as the P-40, T-6, and C-182 do not have this problem.
– The VRS TacPack has been available for 5 years. How many $50 combat aircraft allow you to load ammunition and not deploy? I’m not even wanting a dogfight, ground targets on hay bales or flying banner targets would be great. Part of mastering a combat aircraft is aerial gunnery and it feels limiting to have caps on primary function.
– I’m not going to count polygons, but the VC model size (in MB) of the other A2A P3Dv4 cockpit are: 17 (T-6), 18 (C-182), 14 (PA-24), and 18 (L-049) while the Spitfire is 9 MB.
All of this adds up a port with a little polish applied on the original model. For a real-world classic, design limitations based on period knowledge and capability are endearing. For a digital product, these limitations are immersion breakers.
Had A2A asked for an upgrade price, I would happily pay to bring an old favorite back to life. But asking fair market price should reflect fair market standards.
marvinroubert –
A perfect port of the FSX version, waiting for other warbirds to get the P3Dv4 treatment.
z –
Yet again A2A have made an amazing aircraft.