Today third-party developers have provided new information about upcoming aircraft and an airport for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
We start with MilViz, which hosted an extensive livestream talking about its upcoming roadmap of aircraft for the sim. At the moment, they have 5-6 teams at work on them.
We learn that Stage 2 of the Pilatus PC-6 Porter with analog gauges, the floatplane version, and more will be released in Q2 2022. The developer hopes that Asobo will have fixed water dynamics by then and pictures will be showcased fairly soon. It’ll include Tundra tires, regular tires, and amphibian floats. It won’t have straight wheel-less floats.
The DHC-2 Beaver, the DHC-2-T Turbo Beaver, and shortly after The DHC-3 Otter, and the DHC-3-T Turbo Otter will all hopefully come in the same quarter in 2022. MilViz won’t say which quarter for now, and isn’t going to reproduce any of the refits by Viking.
The A-1H Skyraider is in final approach. As usual, the official marketplace version won’t have visible weapons. A release date has not been decided, but it should be in Q1 2022.
The developer is also working on the Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey), the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Cessna 310. For the 310, they’re also hoping for a Q1 2022 release, maybe at the beginning of Q2. The Huey should come in Q3 or Q4.
Progress is being done on the ATR-72 but MilViz has contracts with corporate and military customers that at times take high-level programmers away from entertainment products like the ATR. The project is moving ahead while the developer is working around limitations in the platform’s development environment, but it’s too early to share a release date.
That being said, MilViz will likely redo the 3D model because it’s not good enough anymore. The Beaver and the Otter’s models are being redone as well.
A Lockheed C-130 Hercules was also mentioned but MilViz isn’t ready to show it because a lot will have to be redone to look good enough for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The aircraft is being developed for the Air Force and the intention is to port it over to Microsoft Flight Simulator after that version is delivered.
MilViz is also seriously considering porting the Beechcraft King Air 350 to Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it likely won’t be sold on the marketplace because it’ll require external software. The ATR may follow the same road as well in order to achieve the best framerates and quality possible.
The entertainment side of the company is going to be rebranded soon, basically splitting from the side of the company that works on products for the military and corporations.
Some of MilViz’s models from older simulators will be licensed to other developers to port over to Microsoft Flight Simulator, like the Cessna T-50 Bobcat that is being ported by Parallel 42.
None of MilViz’s products are planned for a release on Xbox at this time until some problems with WASM are fixed on the platform by Asobo and Microsoft. As soon as that’s addressed, all of MilViz’s products will be released on Xbox without hesitation.
You can watch the full livestream below.
More news comes from Dreamflight Studios, which announced McClellan-Palomar Airport (KCRQ) in California, US.
While the airport mostly focuses on general and business aviation, it’ll certainly be an interesting addition for the increasingly-complete Californian scenery slate in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
According to the developer, the aircraft is on final approach and you can see a couple of screenshots below.
