FSX: Boeing 737-800 Vs Airbus A321 Showdown!

| Sunday, March 15, 2009



This is a light-hearted comparison of the two FSX aircraft. Boeing or Airbus? Whose plane reigns supreme? Yeah I so stole that line from Iron Chef.

Please note that this is a comparison of the virtual aircraft as they are modeled in Flight Simulator X, and not the real aircraft themselves.

 

FSX Boeing 737-800

FSX Airbus A321

Cruise speed

Mach 0.785

Mach 0.81

Power plant

Two GE CFM56-7

Wikipedia: Rated with takeoff thrust from 18,500 to 27,300 lbf

Two CFM56-5B3 high-bypass turbofans

Wikipedia: The thrust range is between 22,000 to 33,000 lbf

 

Handling

8/10
Handling is pretty nice, can’t say it’s perfect.

It's not difficult to land the plane in significant crosswind scenarios. You have full control of the rudder (as opposed to the the A321), so you have a good deal of flexibility in terms of what technique(s) you'd like to employ for the crosswind landing.

Some x-wind techniques:

http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Crosswind_landing

6/10
Extremely slow to respond to input, unless SEC** is switched off in which case the controls feel way too sensitive. On landing, the transition to below 100 feet will automatically deactivate the SEC so you get more control.


Control of the rudder is not possible with the SEC switched on (I believe it's automatic). Surprisingly it’s very easy to land the plane in significant crosswinds even without control over the rudder - perhaps even easier than the 737 or roughly the same. But remember you do get total control below 100 feet so you straighten out.

Interior Styling

Drab. Needs some fake mahogany.

Drab. Needs some fake mahogany.

Air condition

Yes, as standard

Yes, as standard

Autopilot

 

 

 

 









9/10 
Easy to understand and use.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

7/10
Easy to understand and use. However I don’t like the dial/push combo buttons (the ones you can turn and also depress). In addition, having those combo style buttons and rectangle push buttons mixed together garners a feeling of inconsistency.






Control type

 

Yoke.

Sidestick. There's nothing wrong with it but I’m more for the style of the traditional yoke.

Panel & Instrumentation

8/10
A nice feature I like is that the airspeed indicatordynamically displays the never exceed airspeed range, and also the stall range. By dynamic I mean the ranges are automatically altered at different altitudes.

 One thing I don’t like is how in one of the primary LCD display modes, the green arrow graphically depicting the direction of the wind is not shown, but only numbers are. 

I like the panel, it looks and works nicely.

6/10
The primary LCD-displays seem smaller than the 737.

 I’d prefer a numerical readout of the vertical speed which the 737 has – it’s easier to read.

 Also the radar altimeter displays numbers in a bright green colour making it difficult to read. And what’s with all the unfilled space on the panel? All that space could be for larger standby instruments or something else. 

Overall good, but I think the layout of the 737 is nicer.

Safety features

8/10
GPWS, seatbelts . No alpha floor protection on this baby, as the A321 has.

8/10
Angle of attack protection*, Spoiler/Elevator Controls (SEC)**, GPWS, seatbelts

Computer technology

6/10
All the standard fly-by-wire stuff. Oh yeah and GPS comes as standard. A weather radar would be nice eh?

8/10
This baby’s packed with tech! The flight computer system even prevents the pilot from stalling the plane. It also prevents you from doing crazy things like intentionally or unintentionally turning the plane upside down or placing it into a steep dive. Pity it can’t make coffee or do the tax!

Alloy wheels

No

No

Exterior Styling

9/10
Nice nose and eyebrows. The big winglets are sexy, and the flattened undersides of the engine nacelles are uniquely beautiful. Centre landing gears are exposed even when retracted, looks a bit dirty from below.

8/10
Nice nose, but I prefer the sharper look of the 737. Landing gears are all covered up nicely when retracted.

Fuel consumption

A lot more than your truck

A lot more than your truck

Tank size

6,875 U.S. gallons (3,060 nm)

6,260 U.S. gallons (2,454 nm)

Price

Too much

Too much


*Available when SEC is on
** SEC is part of the A321’s Flight Control System (FCS)

Conclusion


I’m going to give the trophy to the Flight Simulator X’s Boeing 737-800. The panel and instrumentation and the handling were the main reasons for it coming out on top, but the Airbus A321 is pretty cool too and it’s growing on me!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
March 15, 2009 at 6:19 PM

Just wanna tell you the airbus flight control characteristics. I think you know this. When you pitch up the airbus, the controls are not directly proportional to the flight control surfaces.

That is why airbus tend to pitch slower. At "Normal Law", when you pull up the the joystick, you are commanding a "G Load", when u turn, you command a "rate of turn" to the airbus. Hence, the turn is slow to start.

Its only true for the Airbus.

flightsimpilot said...
March 16, 2009 at 10:35 PM

Thanks Dusk! I was previously unaware of this.

Anonymous said...
October 1, 2011 at 3:26 PM

The feature in which main landing gears are even exposed when retracted is real!I'm not joking!See the main landing gears!I saw a photo of it, real !

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October 12, 2024 at 9:00 AM

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