Project Magenta News

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November 2006 - Project Magenta 2006 Promo Video

Click on the Video Link on the left to see our new Project Magenta Promo Video... more videos about all sorts of aspects of our software and simulator hardware will follow shortly.

October 2006 - NOTAMs Page

We will be gradually moving away from the "News" page format to a regularly updated NOTAMs section (which has been maintained for smaller changes). The general link for that page is www.projectmagenta.com/notams.html

PM-NOTAMs

19/10/06 Price Changes Notice Important: We are currently working on a new pricelist which will become effective on January 1st 2007. The new pricing structure will be at least 30-50% higher than the current one but we will also be adding package prices for complete solutions. QuickMap will probably be discontinued as a product and we will only offer it as a part of the Instructor Station.
14/10/06 FSUIPC4/WideFS7
Released		 FSUIPC4 and WideFS7 have been released for FSX. Previous versions (i.e. 3 and 6) of that software will not work with FSX. Project Magenta software will connect seamlessly to FSX with FSUIPC/WideFS.

Just to clarify further, Project Magenta does not sell the FSX version of FSUIPC4/WideFS7. To purchase it, please follow the SimMarket link on www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

01/10/06 FSX Compatibility
FSUIPC4/WideFS7		 Project Magenta software is going to be compatible to FSX, some features will actually be enhanced by the new version of the Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Peter Dowson's new FSUIPC and WideFS will be made available to new customers purchasing one of the suites (we essentially pay Peter directly), but please specify for which version of Flight Simuator you request them for. We will not be able to provide new keys for FSX retroactively.
08/06/06 New Documentation A completely new PDF format document which is our new Project Magenta Docmentation has been uploaded to www.projectmagenta.com/docs.html

Please let us know your comments for this first version.
21/04/06 FAQ/Wiki We have installed a mediawiki on the server (cfr www.wikipedia.org) which will allow us to add articles with frequently asked questions as well as reference documents regarding our software and the art of cockpit building. Customers and other users are very welcome to register and add articles of their own.

The link for this new feature is www.projectmagenta.com/wiki

May 2006 - Collimating Displays
This is the first low cost collimated display system. The displays include a beam splitter, collimating mirror and enclosure for the system as shown in the pictures on this page. There are two versions of the system, one is based on a low cost mirror which effectively reduces the cost of each unit by 70%, the other system has a higher quality mirror for professional applications.

More information on www.projectmagenta.com/hardware.html

April 2006 - Cockpit Building and Project Magenta Wiki, one is based on a low cost mirror which effectively reduces the cost of each unit by 70%, the other system has a higher quality mirror for professional applications.

We have installed a mediawiki on the server (cfr www.wikipedia.org) which will allow us to add articles with frequently asked questions as well as reference documents regarding our software and the art of cockpit building. Customers and other users are very welcome to register and add articles of their own (about their recommendations, their own work etc.).

The link for this new feature is www.projectmagenta.com/wiki

March 2006 - General Aviation Glass Cockpit

If you scroll down, you will see that in May 2005 we wrote something about it being available "soon", but it wasn't quite as easy. An updated release Demo has been uploaded to www.projectmagenta.com/latest.html (should it not be there anymore, please go to the regular Demo section) - the initial price of the software is 159 Euros, target price will be higher at a later stage. Should you have any questions, please contact support@projectmagenta.com

December 2005 - Interview with Jonathan Richardson on IFSBI.org
"Jonathan, I've watched you're progress at Project Magenta for the last several years. You're work has been impressive. We've watched a change from not only as a Software developer but now, building cockpits." - Independent Flight-Sim Builders International's Matt Olieman interviews Jonathan Richardson over a number of days... http://ifsbi.org/vi-dec-05.htm
December 2005 - Project Magenta Instructor Station Released!
From the Manual: "While Project Magenta has been delivering a series of programs for cockpit builders, we observed that one important component was hard to find or quite simply unavailable… an Instructor Station. The software now being introduced for that role is based on our experience with several of our other products and particular requirements we would have to such an application."

Product Page [>]

Intruductory Video [>]


November 2005 - Project Magenta Hardware Announced
Never say never... we have always stressed the fact that all we do is software, but this has now changed. While there is a diversified offering out there, some important components are still very difficult to source. In the coming months we will be releasing various hardware products which have derived from our efforts to make a benchmark prototype cockpit.

After experiencing a number of setbacks with some possible solutions, the decision was made to do something about it - hopefully allowing it to grow into being an important part of our services and becoming a benefit to professional as well as private cockpit builders.

So, we are now offering ...

  • 737 Type Specific Shell
  • 737 Internal Structure

and we are going to offer...

  • 737 Dual Linked Flight Control Wheels
  • 737 Dual Linked Rudders
  • 737 Throttle Quadrant
  • 737 Mouldings
  • 737 Slide Window
  • Landing Gear Assembly
  • Nose Wheel Steering Tiller
  • 737 Seats



November 2005 - IFSBI now officially opens doors
Independent Flight-Sim Builders International, a group of cockpit builders who are providing a world wide centralized location, for cockpit sim builders of all levels. To share knowledge among other builders in the home cockpit construction or cockpit parts. Help keep the future of flight-sim building, as an enjoyable hobby, by providing the http://www.ifsbi.org web-site, and in the future, to combine with other Flight-Sim events, builder conferences.
October 2005 - Project Magenta and Paradigm Shift Solutions team to provide CRJ-200 Jet Trainer
Project Magenta and Paradigm Shift Solutions have combined their efforts to produce a highly functional Jet Trainer based on Bombardier’s CRJ-200 Regional Jet. The device is a faithful 1:1 duplicate of the CRJ-200 flight deck. It was built to meet the demands of pilot training centers in need of glass cockpit jet training solutions.

The Denver based engineering firm, Paradigm Shift Solutions, produced the Regional Jet Trainer in response to an overwhelming industry demand for a cost effective regional jet training solution. "Pilot training centers identified their primary need as a training solution that solves the problem of transitioning low flight time pilots into the technologically advanced jet cockpit environment," said J.E. Labs, PhD, general manager of the program, “Because affordability, quality and functionality are primary factors for our customers, the Jet Trainer is designed to deliver high levels of fidelity in a platform capable of withstanding the rigors of daily training events at a reasonable price for pilot training organizations.”

Paradigm Shift Solutions chose Project Magenta for their proven ability to accurately simulate complex aircraft systems and avionics. “The CRJ software package delivered to Paradigm for this project is remarkable in many ways,” Enrico Schiratti of Project Magenta explains. “The fact it is being used in a type specific trainer, created an environment that forced us to expand our software’s capabilities and create additional solutions that are having a positive impact on our entire product range.” With the CRJ software, Project Magenta continues to expand into the professional flight simulation training market and is rapidly becoming an industry innovator and market leader.

Launch customer, Atlas Airline Academy, is slated to take delivery of the first Jet Trainer this Fall. Responding to the needs of regional airlines to find qualified pilots to man their growing fleet of glass cockpit jets, Atlas has developed an Airline and Jet Transition Course based around the Jet Trainer. Atlas’ program is a comprehensive training program designed to overcome the problems that pilots face when transitioning to the airlines from general aviation. Installation of the first unit at its Denver location will be followed by additional locations nationwide in spring of 2006. "After making several test flights in the Jet Trainer, the quality and functionality have exceeded all of my expectations,” said Travis Barnett, President of Atlas Airline Academy, “I am convinced that the quality of the unit will lead to unsurpassed operational reliability, increasing our productivity and ability to train pilots efficiently.”

[Paradigm Shift Solutions]

October 2005 - Prototype Cockpit Lighting and Cockpit Tests Video
While some new videos of the simulator are being made, we just felt like posting a photo of the ambient in the cockpit with the new flood lighiting operational and linked up via pmSystems.

And the first in a set of new videos coming out can be found on our main video page... [here]
September 2005 - Flightdeck Solutions Simbuilders Meeting in Toronto
More than a meeting or conference, the get-together at Flightdeck Solutions turned out to be a very welcome workshop-like event. It allowed builder to meet builders and have the participaring companies have more direct input for both existing and future programs.

We focused on two core issues, interfacing (based on our protoytpe simulator) with discussion of offsets and connectivity as well as the upcoming Instructor Station - both very well received.

Link to Event Photos

Powerpoint Presentation of Prototype Cockpit and project background

Using a small but very useful program called pmControls (still in development) we have

July 2005 - Project Magenta Simulator - Moving Autothrottle
We have now started implementing several new features for the Project Magenta demonstrator. Seeing the fully moving autothrottle come to life as well as having the spoilers deploy upon touchdown was quite amazing, and we will need quite some time to get used to this new feature. The yoke and rudder calibration is also done via custom software and several glareshield inputs and outputs have been outsourced to this new program. More videos and details about this implementation will be made available in the near future.

www.projectmagenta.com/cockpit.html (cockpit and video link)

Using a small but very useful program called pmControls (still in development) we have

June 2005 - Project Magenta Instructor Station
To round off our product line and because of the mid-term need for such a solution, we are announcing an all-new product based on an 'ancient' one.

The Project Magenta Instructor station will be an OpenGL application providing a very easy to use interface for a number of settings within the flight simulator and the rest of our software.

The basic feature list:

  • Overhead Panel Interaction, Basic Settings (Cold/Dark etc.)
  • Systems/Failure Control
  • Position Control (free and relative settings)
  • Environment/Weather Control
  • Load/Fuel Handling
  • Approach Display and Analysis
  • Instrument Display
  • Aircraft Attitude Display
  • Outside View
  • Map Display (can be disabled)
  • Flight Data Logging/Playback

Of course, as always, we rely on our customer's feedback to make this software as easy to use and powerful as possible.

We will soon be in a position to provide estimates for its availability as well as sample screenshots / demo versions.
May 2005 - Announcing the General Aviation Glass Cockpit

While it is still an expensive solution, smaller aircraft are being now delivered with a glass cockpit option, and the number can only rise in the future. We have begun work on a general aviation Glass Cockpit and a Demo for it should be available shortly. No release date has been fixed yet, please contact us if you already have any questions concerning this product.
March 2005 - Jonathan Richardson's Project Magenta Cockpit

Should you not have seen the page yet, Jonathan Richardson is regularly updating the progress of the Cockpit he is building in Germany. This is by no means a new product line of Project Magenta but both an experiment and a hopefully informative "showpiece" of what can be done with our software. This will be Jonathan's fourth cockpit if I am not entirely mistaken. [link>]
December 2004 - Matt Olieman A340 Video

While we are on the subject of videos... here is one from Matt Olieman, [link for download>] (44 MB zip, contains mpg file)
More information can be found on his website [link>]
December 2004 - Flugschule Haeusler Video

The German flight school Flugschule Haeusler ( www.flugausbildung.de ) has a full size 737-700 JAR-approved simulator using our software. While visiting it in Ingolstade, Jonathan Richardson made a video of it; you can find it on our Video Page [link>]

December 2004 - A weekend of work with Richardson and Schiratti

Jonathan and I have been doing some "frame" work, as well as some other things more for the heck of it... please follow this [link>] to find out what precisely has been happening.
December 2004 - New Flightdeck Solutions FMC Hardware

Fully Assembled Unit (was a partial kit) - USB Module included (100% plug and play with Project Magenta Airbus and Boeing Software!) - 40 Pin IDE and USB Cables included. - Enhanced Cosmetics


(click on photo for larger image)
November 2004 - New Servers and User Forum

We now moved the various sites to a high-volume system and while we were at it a new User Forum has been added. It is WebBoard-based and allows access via nntp (i.e. newsgroup like the old system), it has a rather good web interface and you can read and send messages to our conferences via e-mail as you do in a mailing list.

To access it, please sign up on http://news.projectmagenta.com:8080 or simply click on the word Newsgroup in the top bar of the site. I hope you enjoy the new system, and if you have any questions, just send an e-mail to support@projectmagenta.com

October 2004 - Gothenburg - Sim Build Conference

We had a great time at the first Sim Build Conference in Sweden. Many thanks to Claes and Patric for organizing it.


Claudio Azimonti, Jonathan Richardson, Patric Moreau, John/Chris Whitley, Marc Teichtal,
Claes Heijbel, Enrico Schiratti in the Gothebunker. (Photo Credit: John)

As promised, both presentations I made there can be viewed/downloaded following the links below:

www.projectmagenta.com/news/products.swf (1.8 MB)
www.projectmagenta.com/news/pmsystems.swf (400 K)

Website : www.flightsim.no/simbuild2004/
September 2004 - pmSystems Video and Intro Documentation

Days before the release of the interactive demo for pmSystems our site now has an introductory manual/document as well as a Video online. These help explain the idea behind this software in a far more concrete way.

pmSystems provides us with the ability to simulate the complex system logics found in heavy transport aircraft. It can be used both as a pure software interface and / or to provide logics for custom hardware. It is very flexible and the overhead panels of a variety of aircraft can be represented by one software using different configuration files for different types of aircraft. This is true both for the graphics and the systems logic.

To find more information on pmSystems, please go to www.projectmagenta.com/pmsystems.html
May 2004 - Status of things

While work is progressing really fast with pmSystems, several new things have been included in the current software. Here is a partial list:

GAIFR
New Twin Panel, new INI files which allow you to make separate settings depending on which aircraft is loaded in FS - helicopter gauges for 'Black' Panel

pmRemote NEW
Software which allows you to read and write data from/to FS using a web browser, see pmRemote Page

Regional Jet Glass Cockpit
Support for three and four engine jets *and* turboprops has been added.

pmSounds
Re-write of pmSounds, user-definable sounds (via FSUIPC Offsets) as well as mp3 support have been added.

  pmSystems
Video explaining the concept www.projectmagenta.com/video.html , part of the 'deliverables' will be overhead panels for A320, 330 and 340 as well as B737, 747, 767 and 777. The Glass Cockpit software lower EICAS/ECAM pages will be expanded accordingly.

Airbus-Type Software
Additions to lower ECAM to accomodate pmSystems, refinement of the standby artificial horizon and graphics changes.

Boeing-Type Software
Analog trim and flap gauges have been added as well as an improved analog artificial horizon, Expanded F6 page which allows multimonitor display of Captain and First Officer PFD/ND and EICAS screens (still being developed).

Airbus Standby Horizon

  

Boeing Standby Horizon
April 2004 - pmSystems "Teaser" Video
     
We're back to making videos again... please go to www.projectmagenta.com/video.html for a teaser video of our upcoming program pmSystems. It would be great if you could post a news item on your web site.

pmSystems will add a new dimension to our current flight management software, integrating the overheadpanel with the other components of our product range. One software will be able to drive and interface many different aircraft types, irrespective of the manufacturer.		  


click on the image to go to the video page
April 2004 - Twin GA IFR Panel Released
     
The new GAIFR twin panel incorporates the same high fidelity graphics, and advanced precision instruments of the single engine range of aircraft.

New features include an HSI with GS information and a newly modelled AI which incorporates a Flight Director system. Based on the Piper Seneca, the most popular general aviation twin training aircraft, the ASI and Engine instruments accurately portray the correct data for this aircraft type.

We will also include an option to switch engine and ASI gauges to model the performance data of the Beachcraft Baron aircraft which is a default FS2004 aircraft. Whilst the twin panel is still in developement, it will be released soon and will be included as a free update in the GAIFR package.

The current IFR package include the Piper Archer, Cessna and fully sizeable and positionable instruments for single and twin engine aircraft. More information about the current software on www.projectmagenta.com/products.html or check the new demo on www.projectmagenta.com/demos.html

 


click on the image for a larger view
February 2004 - FDS CDU Kit
     
Flightdeck Solutions (FDS)launched its new ELITE series panels this past month and now unveil the new Elite Series CDU kit. Designed to realistically simulate the actual unit, the FDS piece integrates into virtually any simulator setup and is fully compatible with Project Magenta. For more details and a few pictures visit the FDS forum here:
Link:
http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=139		  

February 2004 - PM-NOTAMs page online

There are some recurring questions about new features in the software... from now on apart from the newsgroup posts you will find them also on http://www.projectmagenta.com/notams.html and it is also linked to from the updates page.

Please let me know if something important should be added there.
January 2004 - RJ/BJ Panel Released


large screenshot (1800x900 pixels)

   It has been announced long enough, and finally the first version of the Regional Jet Glass Cockpit is online. This new product fills the rather large gap between the General Aviation and the large airliner software we offer. Initially it is aimed towards Jet engines and it will include props as well in the near future.

While it doesn't have its own autopilot or FMC it will be able to interface with the existing Boeing MCP and CDU software or of course the normal FS autopilot and Flight Plans.

Other specific RJ/BJ software will follow, it might be sped up depending on the demand for it.

This software is priced at 99 US$/EUR and it is available via the usual channels.

A first demo is available on www.projectmagenta.com/demos.html

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