Following the release of our 146 Professional earlier in the year, our development team have been working on its successor in both the real-world and now MSFS, the RJ.
RJ Professional will include all three variants of the regional airliner – the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100, together with over 25 brand new liveries covering operators from all over the world.
Like the real aircraft, our RJ is built on our popular 146 platform, with many upgrades to, and modernisation of the avionics and systems. With deliveries starting in 1993, the RJ introduced an EFIS cockpit with digital displays replacing the ADI, HSI and engine instrumentation. The cockpit features many other changes, from a digital pressurisation controller and COM/NAV/ADF radios, to a more capable autopilot and FMS with LNAV/VNAV and autoland capabilities. The RJ also featured much needed improvements to engine performance.
We'll bring you the full specifications for the RJ Professional a little closer to the release time. In the meantime enjoy the development updates below.
Development Updates
16 December 2022
Here's a small but key dev update on our RJ Professional. As promised previously, the team have put together a video giving a tour of the RJ’s aft centre console, which features all-new avionics versus the 146. Martyn will talk you through the functionality of each panel, from radios to flight deck door controls. Enjoy the video!
14 October 2022
Since our the last RJ In Dev entry, the development team have been busy working on all areas of the aircraft, from the artwork to systems coding and flight models.
The interior and cockpit modelling and texturing has been undergoing extensive testing in recent weeks, with every rivet, screw and label being compared to its real-life counterpart, to ensure 100% accuracy. After spending many months developing the 146, it’s been interesting to see just how much was improved and upgraded in the later RJ, and how all comes together to reduce pilot workload without losing the appeal of the aircraft. More details on those differences can be found here: https://www.justflight.com/articles/rj-professional-and-146-professional-differences-msfs
Work on the 30 liveries, covering the RJ70, 85 and 100 variants, is also complete and we’ve included screenshots here of just a handful of the stunning schemes. Thanks to the commonality of the 146 and RJ exteriors, you’ll be able to share your liveries between both types, like many airlines did in service.
Moving into the cockpit, all of the over 20 digital displays are now ‘alive’, from the PFD and ND to the radios and MCP. Last week we finished work on the aft centre console, which is entirely different to the 146, with more modern VHF COM radio and ADF controllers (the VHF NAV controllers remain on the glareshield), a different style of transponder and brake temperature indicator, and the addition of flight data recorder, emergency location transmitter and flight deck door controls. Next up are the Inertial Reference System (IRS) and fully-automatic pressurisation controller, and we’re aiming to share some preview videos of these new systems in the coming weeks.
We hope you've enjoyed this latest update.
15 August 2022
We're excited to get underway with the first of a number of development entries we hope to be able to bring you for the RJ Professional.
For this first entry, we have included some screenshots of the RJ cockpit, showing the more modern and capable avionics compared to the 146, and a preview of some of the RJ liveries. Work is still very much on-going with further cockpit and exterior changes to come, and we’ll bring you more updates soon!