Microsoft Flight Simulator made a sweeping flight over Gamescom 2022 last week. It was revealed that even more new planes that will be coming in the free Anniversary Edition releasing in November. Third-party add-on studio, iniBuilds, announced it has partnered with Asobo on two more aircraft that will be part of the new release.
Coming to the November edition are a couple of historical planes. Both the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny and Grumman G-21A Goose are on their way to the game in just a few months.
Two for the price of none
The Curtiss JN-4 Jenny hails all the way back to the early era of aviation, first flying in 1915. It was the Cessna 172 of its day; that is, to say, it was a trainee pilot’s best friend — at least in North America. After serving its time in WWI, many units were converted for civilian purposes, such as mail planes and commuters. iniBuilds is approaching this recreation of the “Jenny” rather faithfully. It plans to model “over 800 cable loops” that follow their original links — as taken from the aircraft’s manual.
Cockpit of the Jenny
The Grumman G-21 Goose very much lives up to its name, as it’s one of the most iconic amphibious planes in aviation history. Considered to be “possibly the world’s first private luxury aircraft,” it was originally designed to appeal to wealthy executives. Its interior features such as limited seating in lieu of having room for amenities like “a bar, toilet and executive seating.”
The studio has been dedicated to “recreate the executive cabin in painstaking detail,” even bothering to include minor details like a champagne bucket. It’s not all for show, however. Extensive work is also being done on even the model of the engine. The flight dynamics are sure to match up as well.
Quality assurance
iniBuilds already earned respect from the community after it was revealed to be behind the “study-level” Airbus A310 also coming in the Anniversary Edition. So, this recent announcement means the studio is responsible for three out of the 12 airplanes that will be a part of the release. Essentially, it makes up an entire quarter of the lineup.
In the announcement post over on iniBuilds’ forums, CEO Ubaid mentions how the studio “is made up of a collective of thinkers and doers with a shared commitment to create the best products for flight simulation.” In its effort to “provide some of the best product to as many as possible,” iniBuilds has developed a “long-term partnership” to produce content for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Cockpit of the Goose
Considering that the Anniversary Edition will alone contain three of the studio’s planes, it does seem to indicate that there will be even more collaborations with Asobo in the future. For instance, Asobo has been working a lot with Carenado, another third-party add-on studio. So far, both teams have produced a number of aircraft together, such as the Beechcraft Bonanza V35 and Beech Model 18.
These collaborations not only allow for more planes to be created, but it must really take a load off of the smaller studio’s backs. Creating these planes are not only a painstaking process in terms of labor, but cost as well. Efforts like this all points to just how dedicated Microsoft and Asobo are to giving Microsoft Flight Simulator an extensive lifecycle.
Microsoft Flight Simulator – 40th Anniversary Edition will be ready for takeoff on November 11.
