Thanks Zorin, that could be it. I remember it added up to several thousand dollars US.
Speaking more generally, as others have said, the money side of it isn't the biggest hurdle.
After researching and gathering all the required real-life data for the model to be based on, you'd have to find someone, or a group of people, who are skilled enough to make the 3D models and surface textures (to the standard we've come to expect), and who aren't too busy getting paid to use those skills on 'real' jobs.
Then they or someone else would have to research and work out some kind of flight model for the plane, even if you've just added cockpits to a previously non-player-flyable plane, as the AI uses a more simplified flight model if I understand it correctly.
And after all that, you'd either have to submit it to Luthier/Ilya in order to actually get it in the game, or wait for the SDK and include it as an unofficial add-on plane.
None of that's impossible, but it's a lot of work, requiring a lot of organization, communication and co-operation. If it were just a money matter, we'd probably already have seen a lot more content being added to the game that way.
It actually has parallels in some ways to the restoration of real-life aircraft. It takes a lot of time and money and dedication.
The idea of contracting third parties to make extra content for the sim also ties in with the subject of paid-for add-ons and DLC in general. Because of the economy of scale (or whatever that term is) it's actually easier for the official game developers to make additional content and then spread the cost of that over the larger market that's willing to pay for it when it's included with traditional add-ons or expansion packs. We all pay less when the content is bought by everyone. But we pay more for it (or the developers lose money) when people are free to not buy it at all and do without it, as the cost is then spread over a smaller market. Anyway, don't want to get into that subject.
I think what it adds up to is, like anything, if you want a custom made product, you'd better be prepared to spend more for it than the off-the-shelf stuff, and be willing to wait longer for it, and maybe even put in more than money . Which is sort of what we're all doing anyway to a lesser extent, with combat flight sims already being a niche, not mass-produced cookie-cutter-ed, product.
Hmmm, rambled on a bit there...
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