1999 - 2001
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Intro As of October 1999 I had only released 5 files for FS, and ALL of them had been authorized repaints of someone else's work. Doing repaints is something I enjoyed, but it just didn't compare to the feeling of accomplishment of finishing a complete aircraft. And although I had made many FS aircraft during 1996-97, none of them were released on the internet and all of them we're presumed lost, and after all it would take alot of work to make them compatible with FS98 because they were designed during FS5. ( Era 1). So I figured it was time for a fresh start!
This is the very first release under the name Aeroworks in October of 1999. A traditional Christen Eagle painted black & red. Very simple, and easy to fly if you are an aerobatic type of person. If you are not the aerobatic type you will probably still find this plane very forgiving. Nothing is very unorthodox or radical about this airplane, it's actually the only real world aircraft I have ever released and therefore it technically doesn't qualify as a concept. But since it is the starting point of all things "concept" I think it belongs here in the concept hangar. There have been many updates to this airplane over the years since it's release (it originally had no moving parts since it was a pre-Aircraft Animator release). The various versions are listed below: version 1 - first release, FS98, no moving parts, no panel. version 2 - FS2000 compatibility, reshaped tail and moving parts added for use on Flight Simulator World's Afterburner CD-ROM. version 3 - FS2002 compatibility, original tail design brought back, moving parts, altered "fade to black" paint scheme, basic instrument panel added.
What followed, for me, after the original Dark Eagle were 10 aerobatic planes created for FS98. Most of them were a joint-effort between myself and Mikko "Air Zoom" Maliniemi and usually I did the paint schemes and instrument panels (however 2 planes were solo projects of mine). Making panels was one of those things I never took seriously until I started doing it, and no aircraft I have worked on has gone without one since! I also made friends with Kurt Haukohl, who runs www.musclebiplane.org and got me even more interested in high-horsepower biplanes. So therefore I decided to have my own "muscle biplane" and of course, there was only one plane I wanted to modify it from. Another thing that had happened during the time since the original Dark Eagle was the release of FS2000, which had MANY more features, such as GPS. Naturally I had to incorporate that into the new plane as well as a panel for the first time in the series. This plane would become the second release under the name Aeroworks, in March 25, 2000. Although, it would be another 8 months before the concepts really started with the release of the Concept I in late November, I consider this to airplane be the very beginning of the transition from reailty into fantasy, although still the DK2 is favoring reality alot more than fantasy. About the nickname which has never really been explained, there were now 2 Dark Eagles and for some reason I started using the term "DK2" to distinguish the difference and well,......D.E.2 just didn't seem right!
By March 2001, a full year after the DK2, ALL of the Era 1 Concepts had been released, and I even started to release a couple of small sceneries. However there was one type of aircraft that I had not created that I could not wait any longer to produce: a strictly freestyle aerobatic plane. The Dark Eagle 1 was meant to be a leisurely looper, the DK2 was meant to be more of a competition oriented machine, but this new plane was meant for sheer power, intensity, and more excessive aerobatics than the DK1 and DK2 could provide, combined! Released on May, 2, 2001, the DK3 was a "concept" plain and simple, it is almost a totally different rework from the first two. The only thing that remains unchanged is the cabin. The nose was made longer, wingtips made wilder, empennage redesigned, and totally new flight dynamics that are intended for serious aerobatic pilots only. It is with this plane that I have had some of the most fun and pulled off some of the craziest stunts since I began flightimming in 1994. For FS2002 I have updated the DK3 with custom smoke effects and pyrotechnics as well as an autopilot for the first time on any aerobatic plane I have done. As usual the smoke is toggled on and off with the I-key, and the pyrotechnic effects can be controlled with the smoke or separately by using the L-key.
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