20 December 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, we’d like to thank you all for the support you have given us in this past year. It's greatly appreciated and we are pleased to see so many of you enjoying our products.
To reflect on 2023 just for a moment, it's fair to say that we spent a little more time than we anticipated on updating and improving our recent MSFS add-ons, but we do think these updates have been very worthwhile and owners of these add-ons seem to have appreciated the enhancements and new features. This has meant, however, that we have not made quite as much progress with some of our other new releases as we had planned, so our apologies for any delays to new aircraft which we had hoped to bring to you sooner!
Looking ahead to 2024, we have a full schedule of in-house releases scheduled for the coming year and the updates below will bring you up to date with development progress on the forthcoming Just Flight titles. We'll be bringing you more regular updates on all these projects over the coming months, both here on the Just Flight website and on our social media channels.
We are also looking forward to some new aircraft from our partners in 2024. Black Square are continuing to expand their impressive General Aviation fleet, with the
Piston Duke and
Turbine Duke nearing completion and there's plenty more in the pipeline! Bluebird Simulations are also incredibly busy on the eagerly anticipated
757-200/300.
With Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on the horizon, we remain committed to updating and bringing new features to our existing aircraft as opportunities arise. We're looking forward to seeing how we can take full advantage of any new features MSFS 2024 has to offer once we have access to this new simulator.
Until then, all of us at Just Flight wish you a very merry Christmas and health and happiness in the New Year. Thank you once again for your support in 2023!
Since we revealed our A300B4 Professional at FS Expo 2023 our talented artist has been busy with the mammoth task of texturing the rest of the flight deck and the exterior model. In the cockpit every single panel, gauge, knob and lever is being painstakingly recreated to match the equipment in the real aircraft. Right down to the weathering on each individual screw head, we aim to bring you a level of detail never seen before in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Most of the fuselage and nose section has been reworked and countless new details have been added, including highly detailed flap track mechanisms and brand-new models for the CF6 and JT9D engines.
We have made excellent progress with the systems coding, with the electrical, air bleed, air conditioning and pressurisation, APU and fuel systems complete; these have been custom-coded so that all valves, temperatures and pressures will react just as they would in the real world and are affected by environmental conditions and system configuration. Next up is the hydraulic system.
See the
A300B4 Professional page for more screenshots.
The 'Tonka', as it is affectionately known, is being developed by the same in-house development team that created our critically acclaimed
Avro Vulcan B Mk.2, K.2 and MRR, and with the team having an equal passion for the Tornado, you can expect our next military aircraft to be equally special!
The Tornado GR1 model has seen some significant improvements since we posted the initial images. Amongt these are remodelled sections of the cockpit for even higher levels of accuracy, various exterior modelling enhancements and upscaled interior and exterior textures to full 8K resolution for the maximum possible texture clarity. The next task for the development team is transferring the already high-fidelity code from the Tornado GR1 in Prepar3D over to MSFS and then improving accuracy and adding additional features to ensure that the Tornado operates as close to the real aircraft as possible.
Work has also begun on the 24 paint schemes that will be included, covering various RAF GR1 squadrons as well as German, Italian and Saudi IDS squadrons.
More screenshots on the
Tornado GR1 page show some of the upgraded cockpit artwork and freshly created liveries.
Development of the popular Tomahawk has somewhat stalled lately but is now at the centre of our attention and will be our next GA aircraft release.
Our in-house team is currently focusing on upgrading the interior and exterior modelling and texturing in order to bring the product up to our usual high standards. The core aircraft systems coding is now largely complete and we are now integrating the EFB which features in some of our other aircraft and adding new features and improvements to it where necessary.
One area we’ve yet to show you is the avionics stack, which includes a GMA340 audio panel, SL30 and SL40 NAV/COM transceivers and a GTX328 transponder. All of these avionics units are fully functional and operate exactly like their real-world counterparts.
As with our other MSFS Piper aircraft, we’ll be including various GPS options that you can toggle on the EFB as well as other customisation and quality-of-life additions.
A few screenshots showing the latest cockpit artwork are available on the
PA-38 Tomahawk page.
The successor to our 146 Professional is currently on track to be our next airliner release and a dedicated coding team is now making significant progress on the aircraft.
Many systems are already complete, including air conditioning, fuel and hydraulics, all of which have been overhauled to ensure they match the differences between the more modern RJ compared to the older 146. Our focus is now on the autopilot and navigation systems, two areas that differ significantly from those in the 146.
One system that we have spent a lot of time on recently is the IRS system, with all modes now simulated and fully functional in the simulator, and work is now continuing on on the ADC system (including ADC 1 and ADC 2 computers) to properly integrate them with the various autopilot modes, the FMS and EFIS signal generators. It’s difficult, of course, to show the complexity of systems coding in writing but as we get closer to release we’ll be able to bring you more updates on the RJ Professional as system coding nears completion.
We can, however, show you the brand-new virtual cabin. It features a high-density 3+3 layout for all three RJ variants (this was a standard configuration for many RJ operators), animated doors that can be opened and closed from the forward galley, retractable airstairs and cabin lighting and chimes which can be controlled from the cabin crew panels. A paint kit will be provided so you can customise the cabin’s colour scheme to match that of a specific operator.
Sone new screenshots have been posted on the
RJ Professional page.
In our last F70/100 development update we focused on the aircraft exterior and cabin, but we have also been busy at the business end! Using new reference photographs from an in-service aircraft, the cockpit has been totally reworked with brand-new high-resolution textures and the aircraft will feature an unprecedented amount of detail, right down to individual screw heads and authentic wear and tear representative of a well-used but serviceable aircraft. Many hours have been spent colour matching the various parts of the cockpit and tweaking the materials to give an authentic feel. The textures will be available at both standard and high detail, which you will be able to choose depending on your system specifications.
Dozens of switches and knobs have been totally remodelled to provide the highest levels of detail. Extra detailing has been added to the LCD bezels, and the CRT screens have been reworked to give an authentic curved look which will take you right back to the late 80s when the aircraft first entered service. Work continues on animating switches and instruments, tweaking lighting and integrating systems.
Some new cockpit images have been added to the
F70/100 Professional page and we'll bring you more details in 2024.
146 Professional (MSFS) update
Our
146 Professional for MSFS will be updated early next year to include the UNS-1 FMS and the brand-new, highly detailed cabin that has been developed for the RJ Professional, an aircraft that shares the same fuselage dimensions. The UNS-1 is currently in the later stages of beta testing, with all intended systems functional in the FMS and integrated with the 146 Professional; we'll provide more information on the UNS-1 and its features closer to release.
Further details of the new passenger cabin have been covered in the latest
RJ Professional development update.
The forthcoming 146 Professional update will be free for all owners of the aircraft - see below for a few screenshots of the new UNS-1 unit.
As we announced in November, we'll be working with the Thranda Design team to upgrade our X-Plane 11 GA fleet to X-Plane 12 standards, taking full advantage of everything the new simulator has to offer.
The first aircraft to be upgraded is the
Duchess Model 76, which will feature 8K textures on both the interior and exterior, PBR materials with real-time environment reflections and numerous custom animations such as passenger doors which respond to G-forces and air resistance when they are open.
The new tablet EFB which has been successfully implemented in our MSFS aircraft will also be added and will include features such as aircraft configuration states, interactive checklists and various aircraft customisation options. The screenshot below shows the tablet EFB in the cockpit and there will be a new 'Dynamic Livery' feature which lets you customise the colours on the selected livery in real time without reloading the flight.
The tablet EFB will be included in all of our future X-Plane 12 aircraft and the upgrades will definitely bring a new lease of life to these much loved aircraft. Next up after the Duchess will be the PA-28R Arrow III, one of the most popular GA aircraft that we have ever released.
