Disclosure: My copy of the Concorde FXP was purchased out of pocket. This is not a review copy or a gift.
I love the Concorde. I have loved it since I first saw one on the ground at Dulles while traveling. In 2006, while on a family vacation, I was privileged to visit BA Concorde G-BOAG at her home in Seattle and that only made me love Concorde more. I know very little about how to fly Concorde. I have never flown the FS Labs Concorde, and my only Concorde simulation experience has been poorly rendered and very simple freeware models that are available for X-Plane. These never quite hit the spot. Since the developer, Colimata released the first Concorde XP previews, I have been waiting for its release, and I have not been disappointed now that it is available.
My first video featuring the jet is only my second flight since I purchased it, and the first that includes a landing that didn’t kill anybody. You can watch this here if you’re interested.
Before we dig into the specific details of the Concorde FXP, let me point out that you can view the guidelines I use in this and any other future review here.
Flight Deck Fidelity: 7/10
The flight deck is a work of art. The texturing is beautiful; the reflections are superb. This category would score a ten out of ten, except the flight engineers station is only partially modeled, and none of the gauges are complete. This is shown in pictures of the product on its store page though, so it isn’t a bait and switch.
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Exterior Model Fidelity: 10/10
The exterior model is also a work of art. Everything is modeled in incredible detail, and there are lots of animated doors and hatches that can be manipulated via the plane’s GUI. There are also a lot of service vehicles that can be called into play via the same menu. In short, I have no complaints, and I’ll let these screenshots speak for themselves.
Cabin Visual Fidelity: 2/3
There is a modeled cabin that you can choose whether or not to load via the GUI. It features the famous Concorde signs that displayed speed and other information, but I am not sure that these are realistically modeled and they pull data from the flight instruments. Fine by me, I’m not sitting back there anyways. This cabin meets and exceeds my needs as far as cabin modeling goes.
Sound Fidelity: 5/7
There are FMOd sounds that ship with the simulation, and they are good if not excellent. There are several announcements from the co-pilot to help you manage the flight. These tend to be unobtrusive and helpful, and in many cases, they add to the immersion. As for the rest of the sound pack, I have noticed some oddities in terms of when certain sounds are triggered that I am sure will be fixed as time goes on. I do not think that the sound pack truly captures the sound of Concorde, but it is passable, and I enjoy it. I’ve also never flown on Concorde, so it is difficult to comment as to realism. All in all, I am happy with the default sounds, and I look forward to seeing how they improve over time. There is one significant missing sound that I would love to see implemented if at all possible in X-Plane, and that is the sonic boom when viewed from a flyby camera.
Flight Model Feel: 7/10
Flying the plane in the time that I have had it feels good, except when trying to manage an approach. I have found it incredibly challenging to keep up with during the approach phase, but I expect that this is mostly down to user error as my stick and rudder skills leave an awful lot to be desired. This number is subjective, and I have flown the plane very little so I wouldn’t read into this too much.
Systems Depth: 10/30
Unfortunately, I have to score the plane on existing systems instead of promised systems. At this point, there is not a lot of systems depth, but there are many features and systems that are promised, and I do not doubt that Colimata will follow through. It is still an absolute joy to fly with, and I look forward to an expansion in this area over the coming months.
Value: 20/30
$49.95 is a high price to pay for an early access product I think. I don’t see how you could charge less than that and still promise the number of free upgrades that are expected with this product though, and I certainly don’t mind having paid $49.95 for it. Concorde FXP when it is finished would almost certainly warrant a full 30/30 score here, provided it does get finished, and I think and hope that it will.
Overall Score: 6.1
It gets a score that is lower than what I want to give it, but that’s because I am biased against planes that have a low level of systems depth. I heartily recommend this plane. I am certainly happy that I purchased it, and as it gets updates and moves toward being a completed product, this score will almost certainly wind up in the nines, if not a perfect score. Maybe I’m biased in favor of Concordes, but at the moment this plane is bringing me vast amounts of joy, and I can’t wait to get some more hours in it.
