AWAPS Releases Photo-Real Scenery Pack For KSPG

Posted on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:41:36 GMT

Within a decade after the famous Wright Brothers' 1903 flight, aviation history was being made in Florida. The first transcontinental flight landed at Jacksonville in 1912. A naval air training center opened at Pensacola in 1913, and the St. Petersburg - Tampa Airboat Line, the world's first regularly scheduled commercial airline began service in 1914.

Tom Benoist, a pioneer airboat (seaplane) manufacturer from St Louis started this cargo and passenger airline as well as a flying school on Tampa Bay. Backed by members of the St. Petersburg Board of Trade, he built hangars on the north edge of the yacht basin. Anthony "Tony" Jannus, Benolsfs head pilot, took the airline's first passenger, former mayor A. C. Phell, across the bay in a biplane on January 1, 1914. Phell's high bid of $400 at an auction held before the flight brought him this honor. The twenty mile maiden flight of the new service took twenty - three minutes to complete. A few days later, a light cargo was for the first time flown across the bay. The activities of this airline demonstrated that air travel was practical although services were discontinued after only a few months due to financial and technical difficulties.

Over eleven months in construction replicating in minute detail photo-real textures of the actual airport. Exact placement of hangars, buildings and even the new terminal.

Accurate building demensions were measured from Google Earth.

Not only is KSPG historical but is also the starting point for the annual St Petersburg Grand Prix.

During 1998, Dan Antrim, AWAPS, requested jimmy R martin produce a photo real scenery for their airport. After almost a full year of design and correspondence they requested Jimmy come down for a full tour of the airport which he did in February 2009. The visit to the control tower was a great bonus to study the airport layout. Open hangars detail the actual aircraft based there.

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