The virtual sceneries shown below were used for flight simulation exercises. They are all available online, for sale or free, at ORBX.
Piper Pacer approaching the dock at Robert’s Lake in Ontario, Canada.
In the scenery above, the red Piper Pacer, which is made by Lionheart Creations Ltd , arrives at a Pier at Robert’s Lake, in Canada. This lake was modelized jointly with the Parry Sound (CNK4) virtual scenery.
Virtual Cessna C188B Agtruck near Claresholm Industrial Park in Alberta, Canada.
In the picture above, a virtual Cessna C188B Agtruck created by the Alabeo company is parked near the Claresholm Industrial Park (CEJ4), in Canada. The virtual airport is available for free download at ORBX. Who said that nothing in life is free?!
A virtual UH-60L Black Hawk belonging to the Columbian Police Force is hovering in the jungle.
Above, a UH-60L Black Hawk virtual helicopter created by the Cerasim company is flying over the Papua New Guinea territory. It should normally be hovering over Columbia, but the ORBX company has not yet developed very well defined airports for that country. It was more interesting to fly over an area that was already well modelized.
The three screen captures were slightly digitally improved following each virtual flight. The FSX flight simulation platform, although still interesting, is getting a bit old. The original screen captures often benefit from additional digital processing, especially when it comes to posting for the international contest held monthly by the ORBX company.
As a boy, Keith Ferris lived at Kelly Field, Texas, where his father was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He started drawing airplanes from life at age four or five. He used to carve wooden models, initially in balsa then in pine. This proved useful to visualize aircrafts three dimensionally in drawing.
The aviation art of Keith Ferris
Very young, he knew that he would have a military flying career and soon realized that all his flight training manuals were illustrated byJo Kotula, an artist who was self-employed and could make his living out of his art.
Keith tried to learn aeronautical engineering but eventually abandoned it to concentrate on what he liked the most, drawing and painting. He went on to study at the George Washington University and attended the Corcoran School of Art in New York. He became a member of the Society of Illustrators of New York in 1960.
“The Aviation Art of Keith Ferris” is a superb book filled with sketches, amazing drawings and paintings, aviation facts, real aviation stories, advices on how best to represent a scene, quotes from pilots who were actually involved in dogfights. He explains that some of the most demanding challenges for the aviation artist are painting through glass and simulating rotating propellers.
The aviation art of Keith Ferris
Keith Ferris‘s artwork has appeared in the Aviation Week and Space Technology calendar and the Airman Magazine cover, to name a few. Many international companies have used his work for their publicity. Among them, Mitsubishi Aircraft International, General Dynamics and Fairchild Republic Company. His paintings are part of many collections, among which the U.S. Air Force art collection and the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
The book presents paintings of the following type of aircrafts: Lockheed T-33, Boeing P-12, Wright Type A Biplane, Loening OA-1B (amphibian), Spirit of St-Louis, Grumman F-14 Tomcat about to land on an aircraft carrier, B-52 and KC-135 in a refueling operation, the Thunderbirds (F-100), Harvest Reaper F-111, Supermarine Spitfire and German Messerschmitt 109E in a dogfight, Atlas Centaur Space Launch Vehicle cutaway, China Air Force Mig-15 and a F-86 Sabre (the dogfight is over), Fiat C.R.42, F-15 and a Soviet SU-15 in a dogfight, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress in action, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, F-4C and F4E Phantoms in action, F-105D and F-105E Thunderchiefs in action, Mitsubishi’s A6M2 Zero-Sen and MU2, Bell 47G, PBY Catalina, Handley Page 0/400, Skylab.
There is also a very interesting story about the steps involved in creating a gigantic B-17 mural (25 feet high by 75 feet wide) for the Smithsonian Institution.
