Aircraft Models as Scenery

We have just had some questions about using model (mdl) files with ADE. As a result we did some tests. We found that FSX aircraft models can be added to FSX via ADEX. They show up in ADE with a proper footprint and will display in FSX provided that their textures are copied to the relevant texture folder. What did not work though was the altitude position of the aircraft, and when we raised it up a bit we found that the landing gear was missing:

So while it seems to work using aircraft models as static scenery the results do not appear to be very satisfactory.

Trying the same thing with an FS9 aircraft model fails. ADE cannot find any footprint information although it still loads the model (we need to fix this!). BglComp will not compile it and generates an error that the model data is not found.

Most of this makes sense when we think about it. In FS9 aircraft and scenery object mdl formats are different. In FSX they are the same.