29 May 2025
Once again here's Nick Cyganski to bring you some very exciting news from Black Square HQ.
Thank you all for patiently awaiting an update from me while I have so many aircraft in development and while updating my existing ones for MSFS 2024.
Today, I am happy to announce that Black Square's Starship will be released for MSFS 2020 and 2024 this June, before Flight Sim Expo in Providence. Myself and the Just Flight team will be at Flight Sim Expo to answer your questions and chat about this incredible aircraft.
Starship has been a passion project of mine for three years now, culminating in a visit to the aviation maintenance facility operated by the owner of several Starships.
It was my pleasure to spend two days recording high quality audio from the aircraft, taking reference photos, and "button pushing" in the cockpit with its owner. Although the current owners had sent me thousands of pages of documents, there is no replacement for being able to operate the avionics yourself at your own pace.
While the vast majority of my work entails sitting at a desk, being able to converse with unique aircraft owners and share their appreciation for the technical details of these machines makes much of it feel worthwhile. The other half of the equation is you! My greatest sense of fulfilment comes from watching my users engage with these aircraft, just as the owners do, learning about every small detail, and understanding the brilliant logic of the engineers who designed them.
To begin the month leading up to Starship's release, you can now read a draft of the 190 page manual on the Just Flight Store Page. Have fun becoming acquainted with the aircraft before your first flight!
Access the extensive manual here.
MSFS 2024 UPDATES
As a one-man development team, I do my best to get things right the first time. This has been a difficult philosophy to maintain with MSFS 2024, as major components that affected all of my aircraft were in flux until SU2. It felt like every time I loaded the simulator, something new had changed. For instance, interior lighting would be completely changed, or have changed intensity. Luckily, the base simulation appears more stable after SU2. Unfortunately, none of the blocking issues we reported have been fixed by this Sim Update. One such issue involves my highly customizable dynamic registration system, and another makes canard aircraft incompatible with the new default EFB payload interface.
I feel strongly that each update to my aircraft should result in a better experience than before. This too has been difficult with MSFS 2024, primarily due to the new LOD (Level of Detail) system. Developers who wish to natively support their aircraft or scenery in MSFS 2024 have been forced to create many, highly optimized LOD models (as many as ten). Without this, the aircraft will disappear completely within a few steps away from its fuselage. This is a very time consuming process, which I've had to undertake for all ten of my aircraft we currently plan to release for MSFS 2024. This totals 206 new models for their interiors and exteriors! Even with all this work, the new LOD system is overly aggressive, resulting in models "popping", even before reaching the end of the aircraft's wing. This is supposedly going to be improved in future Sim Updates.
Now onto the positives. All MSFS 2024 updates for my aircraft will include walkaround and collision features that were not possible in MSFS 2020. While this does not make use of the 2024 native walkaround features (blue highlights instead of blue dots), my aircraft already implement far more complex behavior regarding doors, engine covers, pitot covers, etc, than the native MSFS 2024 system allows, making this the best of both worlds. I will continue to improve these new walkaround features as we discover what's possible in MSFS 2024, and you all share your feedback about what features are most important.
Thank you again for your patience, and thanks to everyone who has helped me test my aircraft in MSFS 2024. Regardless of the present blocking issues that persist in MSFS 2024, Starship will be the first to debut in MSFS 2024, acting as a catalyst for the others, which will be updated after Flight Sim Expo.
We also expect to release the new "Professional Series" aircraft (designed to replace the Steam Gauge Overhaul fleet) for MSFS 2020 and 2024 in Q3 and Q4 of 2025. You can learn more about these projects
here ,and
here.
REAL TAXIWAYS UPDATE
As some of you may have already read on the Just Flight Community Forums, I have recently reinvested my time in Real Taxiways. When MSFS 2024 was released, it was abundantly clear that Real Taxiways was still needed, with improperly sized taxiway signs in the middle of taxiways and incorrect naming at most airports.
Unfortunately, the method I had been using to inject my taxiway symbology does not work in MSFS 2024, and the generic airport database has been significantly updated. Even the scenery file format, which dates back to the 90’s, had been changed with no documentation. I thought this may have been the end of the road for Real Taxiways, but a solution revealed itself with some hard work and a hex editor.
As is so often the case, this new solution had other benefits. Real Taxiways will now be coming to both MSFS 2020 and 2024 Marketplaces (pending approval), in addition to MSFS 2024 on the Just Flight Store. Airport layouts will be updated for MSFS 2024, and select airports will be updated for MSFS 2020 where taxiway names have changed.
Lastly, Real Taxiways will also now include custom taxiways sign models for both versions of MSFS. These models have new sign symbol textures, custom emissive materials (dark blacks at night), and high detail decals. The models have also been optimized for the MSFS 2024 LOD system, which means they are visible from much farther away with less popping than the default models in both simulators. They are also easier to read, especially at night with the new emissive materials.
Thank you all again so much for your interest in my projects, and your excellent suggestions that always help improve them. It's been a delight to share my passion for flight with you, and come into contact with so many wonderful people. I can't wait to see some of you at Flight Sim Expo again, and tell you about our new upcoming projects!