G'day Pilots,

Today we're thrilled to be sharing some exciting news we've had under wraps for alittle while - a partnership with Microsoft and the upcoming release of our Spitfire Mk IX for the incredible Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

Developing an aircraft for MSFS has been a very rewarding & enjoyable experience; famous for it's breathtaking visuals, incredibly accurate landscapes and having all the latest technology in games development, MSFS provides an excellent platform for flight simulation. It has allowed our Spitfire to look, feel, fly & sound better than ever before. It is pure joy to experience, with immersion that is second to none in civilian fight simulation.

Spitfire Mk IXc 

A timeless legend, an icon, a hero and arguably one of the most beautiful aircraft to have ever existed.

Designed by Supermarine to be a short-range, high-performance interceptor, the Spitfire is most famous for it's pivotal role in World War II & The Battle of Britain where it was a key weapon against Axis forces. Instantly recognizable by it's iconic elliptical wing, the Spitfire needs little introduction from us.

Key Features:

3D Cockpit Model built from Heritage Flight Simulations incredibly detailed & millimeter accurate CAD Model 

The model is a perfect replica of the Spitfire Mk IX cockpit, down to the smallest detail, and is used for the production of HFS's amazing cockpit replica (available here).

This is of course backed up by our usual ultra-high Artwork standards across the entire aircraft - the in-game screenshots say more here than we ever could!

Professional Wwise Sound Design by an experienced Sound Engineer

This release marks our greatest achievement in sound design so far, by a long mile, thanks to the power of Wwise (the industry leader in game audio-engineering). All sounds have been professionally recorded from a real Spitfire Mk IX. We have splashed out here to obtain an exhaustive Spitfire sound pack, professionally recorded by an Audio studio for the purpose of simulation & game development. It has been worth it! The audio experience is incredibly immersive and enhances the experience significantly!

Extensively researched, detailed and realistic Flight Model

Asobo has developed an enormously complex, detailed and realistic set of Flight Modelling tools that we have fully implemented to build our Spitfire FM from the ground up. Our experience in developing our Spitfire Mk IX for X-plane 11, as well as our recent experience developing Flight Models inside 3 different simulation platforms, has allowed us to quickly build a highly accurate Flight Model that not only flies 'by the numbers', but just feels damn good.

We will also be including several variants of the Spitfire, either on or shortly after release. This includes:

• A clipped wing variant (Mk IXe)
• Merlin 66 engine limited to +16lb Boost
• Merlin 70, unlocked to it's full +25lb Boost. Optimized for higher altitudes

Release Schedule

We are in the final phase of development, adding the spit & polish with a dash of elbow grease. We are commencing Beta-testing tomorrow, which will run for roughly 2 weeks.

After our internal testing is complete, our Spitfire will be flown over to Microsoft who will then conduct their own testing & review to ensure it is up to standard for the Microsoft Marketplace. We've been informed that this process can take somewhere from 4-7 weeks, after which our Spitfire will be officially available for purchase from the Microsoft Marketplace Store.

HOWEVER, we know that many of you are eager to get flying straight away, so we have some good news for you. The Spitfire will be available for purchase and full use from our website whilst we wait for Marketplace approval! 

Update Schedule & a note on cockpit systems

As most of you are probably aware, Microsoft Flight Simulator is still in development and rapidly growing and changing. This is especially true for the SDK and development tools, which are still in their early infancy. For this reason, some of the cockpit systems are not quite as detailed as our work in X-plane 11, as we simply don't have the tools available yet to build these systems in as much detail as we'd like.

We have integrated the available systems as realistically as possible; for the most part they work very well and function identically to the real-world aircraft, however currently there are a few non-functional buttons and switches (an example would be during the booster coil being non-functional during startup, instead simply using the starter button).

We will be gradually updating the Spitfire & it's systems as Microsoft Flight Simulator & the SDK is updated to provide more flexibility for custom systems. These updates will be free for all existing customers.

Teaser & Media

Flying the Spitfire inside of Microsoft Flight Simulator is incredibly enjoyable and immersive; it's easy to get lost in there for hours (or as long as your fuel lasts!). With the addition of VR, the experience has only gotten better. We've had a blast developing it so far, testing it & flying it, and we truly can't wait to share it with you! 

NB: The usual disclaimer applies here, everything is still a work-in-progress and there is still lots to do before release

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact us via any of these channels:

Discord: https://discord.gg/ANGdkzb2
MSFS Forums: Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
Website: Use the contact form below!

Stay safe in the air & on the ground,
Dan & Alex
FlyingIron Simulations