Microsoft's Flight Simulator now includes helicopters, gliders, and the Spruce Goose

Microsoft has released the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary update to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the venerable Flight Simulator series. As previously hinted, this update to the sim will include helicopters, gliders, and a few classic aircraft. Gliders and helicopters aren't new to Flight Simulator, but they were still missing when Microsoft and Asobo resurrected the game in 2020.

The Airbus A310 is now available for free, along with two new helicopters, two gliders, seven famous historical aircraft, classic airports, and more than 20 classic missions from previous versions of Flight Simulator.

This year, Microsoft Flight Simulator received a few major updates, including the Top Gun: Maverick expansion, which let players climb into the cockpit of an F-18 fighter and take on the challenging missions featured in the blockbuster sequel, such as aircraft carrier landings and flying to the edge of space in the fictitious hypersonic Darkstar.

Microsoft and the sim's developer Asobo Studio invited a small group of flight sim influencers and tech media to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, to celebrate the launch. Why? It's where you can see the Spruce Goose, so what better place to celebrate the release of this update?

The airflow in a helicopter is primarily from the top down. "Because it comes from the rotors and pushes down on the helicopter, we had to increase the resolution of the specific turbulences around the actual helicopter significantly."

Translation lift has been perfected in-game to allow helicopters to realistically transition from hovering to forward flight. That may sound simple, but it entails precisely coding how rotor systems react to turbulence and vortices caused by hovering flight.

Along with the two helicopters, today's update includes ten more fixed-winged aircraft, including an incredibly detailed and accurate Airbus A310-300 and a pair of gliders, the DG Aviation LS8-18 and DG-1001E neo. Seven historical planes join the game's lineup for those looking for a more leisurely simulated adventure: the 1903 Wright Flyer, a 1915 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, Charles Lindbergh's 1927 Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, a 1935 Douglas DC-3, a 1937 Grumman G-21 Goose, a 1947 Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, and Howard Hughes' 1947 H-4 Hercules. That last one is more commonly known as the Spruce Goose, and it was the largest wooden aircraft ever built.Neumann also mentioned that he is thinking a lot about digital preservation these days. That may entail creating digital models of classic aircraft such as the Spruce Goose, as well as classic airports, and utilizing satellite imagery and other data that the team is capturing, visualizing, and preserving. He mentioned that the current version of New York City in the game is a few years old and that the team is working on a 2022 version, but that he wants to be able to give players the option of which one to use. That's an intriguing idea, and we'll probably hear more about it in the coming years.