XPlane: JARDesign 320 Airliner Review

The JARDesign A320 has a big fan base, because it was for a long time the only well designed Airbus A320 add-on for XPlane, however now the Flight Factor A320 is about to be realeased. We thought this might be the perfect moment to check the the current version of the Airbus and if it is still worth the 60 Dollars.

 

What is included ?

 

When you purchase the JARDesign A320 you not only the plane. It also a ground handling plugin plugins, which only work with the A320. Furthermore the plane include not only the CFM56 engines it also includes the PWG1100G enignes, also it is possible to fly the plane with or without the sharklets. The plane offers a custom FMC, which is able to fly SID and STARs.

There is only one livery included the default JARDesign livery, however if you wish to fly other liveries you can download them for free, on either simliveries.com or the XPlane forum.

 

How does it look like and feel ?

 

Most of the time you will probably spent in the cockpit. The cockpit is designed beautiful and with great detail. However JARDesign has left a mark to show it is their aircraft which could be annoying, if you pay much attention to details.

Otherwise the cockpit reassembles the real A320 cockpit really well. You also can switch from the left pilot seat to the right seat if you click on the flight stick priority button.

Another downside of the JARDesign A320 is that is surely not a studylevel aircraft, which means that not every function of the cockpit is available.

What is really beautiful designed are the interior lights, they look absolutely gorgeous. However I spotted a little bug with the reflection in the windshield of the cockpit. I turned of the lighting but, the light was still reflected in the windshield.

The displays are modelled with a great attention to detail, they have even included an effect which looks kind of like dust. Its just the little things which create the immersion.

Overall the cockpit is designed very well and with great attention to the detail, however it cannot create the 100% level of immersion, due to minor flaws in the design.

I was really surprised as I saw that the cabin was also modelled. I have not expected that and it looks really amazing. The cabin is build in a 2 class set up with a business class and a economy class. Both classes have an entertainment system and look great. The colour scheme of the business class kind of reminds me of the Emirates cabin. While flying you can enjoy the wing view from inside the cabin, which is awesome.

The outside of the plane is not different to the rest of the plane and all of the reflection look amazing. Furthermore every designer who worked on a livery, thank you! They did a great job and every livery I tried just looked beautiful. There is also a fictional Emirates A320 livery and I love it. Otherwise the whole external model is designed without a flaw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does it fly ?

 

The whole flight model is very nice and it doesn't have much problems. It seems very realistic however this is my opinion and I haven never been in command of a real aircraft, still I tested a variety of other planes which offered the fly by wire system in X Plane and FSX. Furthermore the flight models offered in X Plane complement the plane and make it really worth to fly it.

My biggest downside with the JARDesign A320 are the bugs I experienced with the FMC over the time. Don´t get me wrong it is not a common issue I had, but still very annoying. Some times the FMC does not follow your route and the entered waypoints and sometimes it fails to program the localizer correctly. If the problems doesn't appear you will have a great time flying the A320.

 

Conclusion:

 

When you compare all the pros and cons, you will realize that the JARDesign is a great modelled plane with some flaws, additionally the price tag for a not study sim aircraft is a bit high. However the product JARDesign delivered is still good. If you want to fly the A320 and you can live with the flaws or you don´t want to wait for the Flight Factor A320, get the JARDesign!

                                                                                                                           Jan Birkner