20 JULY 2010 | xp10reviews aircraft review Jason Chandler | c74.net Bell Bottom Blues The Colani Fanliner first appeared in 1976–when disco was all the rage and bell bottoms were still high fashion–and the little plane was produced in small numbers in Germany before it disappeared from view. A few examples have surfaced in design museums, yet curiously the design still awes with it’s organic simplicity and aura of futuristic utilitarianism. Then Jason Chandler came along and took a look… a mini-review by chipsim7 BioDesign? The words “biodesign” and pen. And all these products “biodynamics” may not mean have one unifying a lot to you unless you characteristic. studied industrial design Consider this: “Whenever we somewhere along the way, or talk about biodesign we should you somehow managed to simply bear in mind just how live through the sixties, so let amazingly superior a spider’s web me fill you in on the topic by is to any load-bearing structure way of a little story. man has made – and then derive Once upon a time there was from this insight that we should a brilliant industrial designer look to the superiority of nature who hailed from Berlin but for the solutions. If we want to called the world his home. tackle a new task in the studio, His name was Luigi Colani. then it’s best to go outside first and He studied sculpture in look at what millenia-old answers Berlin and aerodynamics in there may already be to the Paris, he went to work for the Douglas Aircraft problem.” Luigi Colani welcomes you to his Company in California in the early 50s, then website (http://www.colani.ch/) with this quote, started designing cars for Alfa Romeo and Fiat, and I think it worthwhile to consider this while then BMW and Ferrari. He designed Formula One you take in Jason Chandler’s brilliant interpretation racing cars and the Colani motorcycle, which set of the classic Colani Fanliner, now available for X- speed records in Italy. Cameras for Canon Plane. followed, then designs for Zeiss Optics, First the file. It’s freeware! The avionics are computers for Vobis, headphones for Sony… minimal, but very well done. No flight The list is almost as endless as the dizzying array documentation provided, and none required. The of products designed. Odds are you have a Colani file opens hot, you drop the flaps and go. The designed product lurking in your house Fanliner wasn’t a rocket, and neither is Mr somewhere, be it cutlery or porcelain or a fountain Chandler’s version, but what you do get is a One of the remaining Colani Fanliners, now located in a museum. superb wide-screen view of everything you’re flying keyboard equivalents, and the center-post has been over. eliminated to So what, you say. preserve the So what indeed. expansive view. Don’t have any Flying the ortho-scenery FanLiner is installed yet? simplicity itself. Well, you will, T h r o t t l e a n d and probably mixture controls sooner than you need to be think, and flying balanced (gauge, low and slow top left), Vref is over your favorite a stately 50kts or photo-realistic so, and the scenery might aircraft trims well become a easily for level favorite pastime flight. Rate of for X-Pilots in climb is similarly the very near sedate, and the future, especially aircraft stalls when armed with e a s i l y a n d a file like Jason Chandler’s Fanliner. progressively, a sure sign that the designer massaged The view ahead is unobstructed and expansive, the the flight model to reflect reality as well as he could. aircraft docile, easy to fly. With a wide-screen This is a fun-to-fly file, and that’s all there is to it. It’s monitor in a darkened room the feeling is a little bit one of those ‘grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a like an IMAX movie–albeit a scaled down version! quick flight after dinner’ files. It doesn’t demand a lot There is a very basic 3D view enabled, as shown of mucking about with avionics, just a ready hand above, but no passenger cabin or expanded cockpit and a willingness to go futz around in the virtual sky view. All secondary flight controls/avionics are for a half hour or so. But once you get a couple of handled through mapped joystick commands or photorealistic sceneries onboard, this may well become one of your favorites! HTTP://XPLANE10.WORDPRESS.COM/ (MAX : 5 per element) 1. Frame Rate Performance: 2. Flight Model: 3. Exterior Model: 4. Cockpit & Panel: 5. Ease of use: 6. Documentation: n/a 7. X-Factor (or, does it make you feel like a grinning fool every time time you !y it?): Overall Score: The Colani Fanliner is a freeware file available from different Piper models for fourteen dollars (http:// Jason Chandler at his C74 site, but there is a catch. www.c74.net/xplane/_piper.html) this is the time to do While it is free, it is only available to his paying it! Once you’re registered there you’ll find lot’s of other customers. Call it a fringe-benefit. Don’t have one of freeware files available, and new ones come up all the their files yet? Well, this is a good time to change that. time, but the Colani FanLiner IS there NOW! Free!!! Just point your browser to: http://www.c74.net/ So, dust off those bell bottoms and go for a dance! xplane/_xpo_coop.html and take a look around. If you Thank You, Jason, and thanks for joining us for a quick haven’t seen their current special offer of fourteen look at this great file. We’ll see you soon! 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