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Happy Anniversary...

A year has passed already.  It was on November 28th, 1999 that I officially kicked off this website.  Fueled partly by my extreme interest in the subject matter, but more so because there was nothing else like it out there among the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Flight Simulator related sites on the Internet.

I started out with about a dozen or so aircraft consisting of a few each Mirage IIIs, 5s, and F1s.  It has now grown to seven major types with over sixty aircraft now available for download.

Aircraft Type11/28/9911/28/00
Mirage III414
Mirage 5311
Mirage F1618
Mirage 2000911
Mirage 400013
"Other" Mirage516
Rafale15
Totals2978

The Scenery and Panel sections have grown as well.  The Links have also grown quite a bit which just shows that there is an immense amount of information (most of it useful <g>) available on the Internet.  And all of it accessible thanks to an ever increasing number of search engines.  In fact, in the case of the latter I am always pleasantly surprised to see this website referenced very near the top when searching for "Mirage", "Aircraft", and/or "Flight Simulator".

This past week the website had its 25,000 visitor.  The previous month it received another award for website design and efficiency.  And it consistently ranks among the Top 100 FS sites at simFlight.com (not necessarily a good thing once you know how that works).

But the purpose of this page is not meant to be an opportunity for me to toot my own horn.  The real purpose is to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of this site; those who have made their work freely available for the enjoyment of others.

I'd like to thank the aircraft and flight model designers (listed in alphabetical order): Jason Ashworth, Joël Branchu, Thomas Chao, Anton Coetzee, Vasco Ferreir, Yves Franckart, Paul Kimberling, Washington F. de A. Kuhlmann Jr., Roger Lowery, Rémi Moreau, Daniel Mrawek, Alexandre Mugny, Colin Norwood, OMC'99, Henning van Rensburg, Thierry Romain, and Marc Siméon.

I'd also like to thank the many repainters out there who have taken the designer's efforts one step further and given us the great amount of variation in color schemes and national markings that we have: Heitor J. Antunes, Neil Bainbridge, Eric Bressant, Spyros Diamantis, Sergio Kaiser, Francisco Fishwick López, Marc-Antoine Manini, Gonzalo Oyarzun, Periklis Pagratis, Pierino Primavesi, Sigfrid Roig, Nicolas Sepúlveda, Neels Smit, and Cherar Suarez.

I've had the pleasure of corresponding with many of those mentioned above to obtain permission to display their aircraft and also to find out what projects they are working on.  They've been very open and I've passed this along on the What's New (Quoi de neuf?) pages and an occasional Preview page for a particular aircraft I've been lucky enough to have an advance look at.  You know who you are and I thank you.

Looking at well-made aircraft is one thing but flying them is another.  Many of those named among the designers above have also given us very realistic flight models so we can see just how demanding a supersonic fighter is to handle.  Having realistic instrument panels takes it even further towards being "as real as it gets".  Thanks to Dave Haskell, Johann Ludwig, Mike McCormack, and Michel Polski for their impressive Mirage panels.

Not to be overlooked, the scenery designers who have provided military air bases for France, Europe, and other parts of the world where the Mirage is flown.  Too many to name but certainly appreciated.

Now a couple of especially deserved Thank You's.  First to Michel Gérard, who has provided many very interesting and equally informative articles on the Mirage in French Armée de l'Air service as well as translating the What's New page to correct French for the Quoi de neuf? page.  This has saved me from having to use the embarrassingly incorrect translators found online.

And secondly a Thank You to the team of Simvol.org (Marc, René, Jean-Pierre, and Jacky) who's brief mention of this website* brought it to the attention of the European, and more specifically the French, Flight Simulator community. 

Since we webmasters love statistics...
Highest Day of the WeekSunday
Monthly Average Unique Visitors1453
Highest Month Unique Visitors2111 in Aug, 2000
Daily Average Unique Visitors66
* Highest Day Unique Visitors203 on 05 Jun 2000
Europe Unique Visitors28.07% (3265)
North America Unique Visitors22.80% (2653)
South America Unique Visitors2.45% (286)
Asia Unique Visitors1.68% (196)
Australia Unique Visitors1.59% (186)
Africa Unique Visitors1.04% (121)
Geo-Unknown Unique Visitors42.32% (4922)

And last but not least, a Thank You to the folks at www.flightsimmers.net who have provided the free hosting of this website.

This next year looks promising as well with several projects in the works.  So make a bookmark and be sure and stop by again.

Header photograph Copyright Avions Marcel Dassault - Breguet Aviation via GAILLARD.
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