No Money Mondays: Beech Factory Airport by FreakyD
Quick summary· AI-generated
This is Threshold's weekly freeware column covering FreakyD's recreation of Beechcraft Factory Airport near Wichita, Kansas for MSFS 2024. The article describes the real airport's role as Textron Aviation's manufacturing and testing hub for King Air, Bonanza, and Baron aircraft, then details the addon's custom 3D models (Delivery Centre, hangars, offices, Costco), PBR textures, and ground clutter. The piece positions the scenery as a good pairing with the recently-released FlightFX Hawker addon.
Excerpt from Threshold
Welcome back to No Money Mondays, our weekly column where we take a look at everything freeware!
Today, we are heading to the United States, to take a look at Beechcraft Factory, Wichita, KS, USA – KBEC, by FreakyD, for MSFS 2024, also known as Beech Factory Airport (IATA/FAALID: BEC, ICAO: KBEC)
Located near Wichita, Kansas, Beech Factory Airport is a privately owned airport operated by the aircraft manufacturer Textron Aviation, supporting the manufacturing, flight testing, and delivery of King Air, Bonanza and Baron aircraft.
The factory airport was also home to the final assembly, outfitting, and testing of Hawker 800XP and 800XPi aircraft, so it makes for a good location to fly your new FlightFX Hawker out of, which was surprise-released last month.
Beech Factory Airport covers around 1,280 acres and is located at 1,408 feet above mean sea level.
It’s runway, Runway 1/19, measures 8,00 by 100 feet.
In 2008, the airport had 32,700 aircraft operations, with the majority being general aviation, along with some military operations.
It has an active weekday control tower operated by Textron Aviation, but has no public fuel, FBO services, or public amenities.
The land where the airport now sits was first purchased in 1928 to house the then Knoll Aircraft Company.
The Yellow Air Cab Company acquired Knoll before Beechcraft took over the property in 1940 to expand its manufacturing operations.
The airport also played an important role during World War II, serving as a staging site for military aircraft produced for the Allies.
It became a manufacturing and testing base for many legendary general aviation aircraft, including the Beechcraft Bonanza and Super King Air.
Following corporate buyouts by Raytheon, Hawker Beechcraft, and, finally, Textron Aviation in 2014, the airport remains active today, hosting corporate flight ops, testing, and customer delivery of new aircraft.
Scenery creator FreakyD has expanded the default scenery by modelling various handcrafted Blender models of the Beechcraft Delivery Centre, other hangars, engineering offices, and a Costco.
PBR textures have also been used, the creator says, in addition to new ground textures, custom fencing and other building and hangar clutter being added.
You can download FreakyD’s Beechcraft Factory from Flightsim.to. The scenery is made for MSFS 2024.
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