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The Étendard IVM project originally began as a group effort at the
GMAX Académie, with
the model by Pierre Marchadier, panel by Jean-Pierre Langer, and flight model by
Benoit Dubé and JP Bourgeois (BeeGee), with advise from former Étendard pilot Michel Panattoni.
Work progressed but with several projects (Mirage 2000 series)
moving along in concert something had to give. So work on the Étendard was put on
hold. Then in the summer of 2009 Sylvain Parouty, who made the beautiful
Clemenceau aircraft carrier stepped up to assist.
Pierre handed the project off to Sylvain and progress has moved forward steadily.
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| Under Sylvain's direction the team has been assembled as follows. Visual model: Sylvain; 2D panel and gauges: JP Langer with Sylvain doing a little work on some xml gauges; flight model: JP "BeeGee" Bourgeois; Research: Michel Panattoni with 1,500 hours flying the real Etendard ("my 'special' advisor" according to Sylvain); textures: Rooster and Sylvain. |  |
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Nº30 in subdued scheme and markings. The external configurations will be clean (above);
two tanks; two tanks with two Matra rocket pods (left); and two tanks with centerline refueling
pod and extending drogue.
Individual flight models will be used to fine tune each configuration's effect on aircraft handling. |
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On the real aircraft the wings are folded manually by the ground crew so
there is no switch in the cockpit. So in FSX the wings are folded by
using the keyboard wing fold command. Also in this image note that the under-fuselage airbrakes correctly deploy only partially when the gear is extended. Compare this to Nº29 in the top image. |
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Nº7 with special markings worn for the retirement ceremonies in 1991. Tail art includes unit badges of all operators of the Étendard IVM: (top to bottom) Flotille 15F, 11F, 17F, 16F, and Escadrille 59S. The real Nº7 is on display at the Musée Aéronavale de Rochefort. |
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Nº59 of Flotille 11F with refueling buddy pack on the centerline
and the nose mounted refueling probe extended.
Several features of the model require that FSUIPC be installed. It is also necessary to have FSX Acceleration installed. |
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A moving carrier in FSX can't have navaids. To get around this Sylvain modified some xml code by Russian developer Jivko Rusev to not only find the carrier and calculate bearing, distance and ILS variables from this carrier but to also work with the PHI gauge to simulate TACAN and incorporate LSO control. |
| The cockpit is remarkably complete, very detailed, and innovative. The pilot of an aircraft "sees through" the canopy structure. To simulate this in FSX and make landing easier, click on the top of the main panel and the canopy structure becomes semi-transparent. Clicking another area changes the view to simulate raising the seat. |  |
| Also have a look at these in-game videos: |
RFN Étendard IVM cockpit familiarization
(A Must View) Étendard IV M by La Royle French Navy Étendard IVM FSX Acceleration Royal French Navy design Étendard IVM Carrier Landing FSX Acceleration Étendard IVM Carrier landing Carrier landing - Étendard IVM (FSX) |
An update from Sylvain Parouty (April 2011) ...
"Regarding the exterior model, we have 4 configurations for the IVM (clean, 2 tanks, 2 tanks with 2 rockets pod, and "Nounou" refueling pod). No major enhancement has been done on the 3D model, but a great work has been done on the flight model. The plane behavior at each configuration state (flaps, airbrakes, gears, para-drag) has been modeled/tuned and sharply tested according real flight reference data charts."
"To give you an idea of what kind of tests was used to validate the FMC, Michel (our adviser/former ETD pilot and 1st test pilot) made some specific missions according to real flights done for Etendard's pilot certifications and Bee Gee (our FMC guru) tuned the FMC in order to make the FSX flights match with reality!!"
"For instance, IFR Level 1 and 2 are flights where pilot breaks through a cloud cover to land or
trap (Level 1 or 2 is depending on the low altitude of the cloud: 600ft or 300ft QFE...).
The pilot's manual is very clear and specific on how the "breakthrough" must be done (rpm, airbrakes,
etc.) and they succeeded in being able to follow official procedures, having a plane's "behavior"
very close to the real life one: same rpm, configuration, weight, altitude, etc. Give the same
speed, diving rate, distance, etc. They are very impressive!! By the way these IFR
missions are extremely crazy to fly. (lol)"
An update from April 2025 ...
Silvain Parouty and the Royal French Navy team have released v4 updates to their Etendard IVM.
They have improved and enriched their model for 64-bit versions of Prepar 3D v4 to v6 with new PBR
textures, more complete functions (including a range of weapons compatible with Tacpack) and new C++
gauges for a rendering as close as possible to what the Etendard IV was between the 60s and 80s!
(Click images for a larger view.)
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