Sim Update 11/40th Anniversary Edition available now

**ak416** · November 11th, 2022, 07:04

Today we celebrate the exciting history of aviation with the release of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition, the most advanced version of this beloved franchise yet. Among the many features included in this update is a true-to-life airliner, the Airbus A310-300, rendered with stunning accuracy.

The 40th Anniversary Edition also features, for the first time since the platform’s 2006 release, helicopters and gliders that perform with amazing life-like realism. We’re also introducing seven renowned historical aircraft: the 1903 Wright Flyer, the 1915 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, the 1927 Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, the 1935 Douglas DC-3, the beautiful 1937 Grumman G-21 Goose, the 1947 Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, and the famous 1947 Hughes H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose,” the largest seaplane and wooden aircraft ever built.

We have also added four classic airports, including the Meigs Field in Chicago, a traditional home airport for the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise.

It is an incredibly exciting update celebrating aviation history, introducing significant technical advancements in flight dynamics and simulation and featuring two new types of aircraft (gliders and helicopters) - all to delight our community and showcase the beauty and the thrill of flight!

In summary, the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition delivers the following brand-new content:

1 true-to-life Airbus A310 airliner
2 helicopters and 14 heliports
2 gliders and 15 glider airports
7 famous historical aircraft including the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the Spruce Goose)
4 classic commercial airports
24 classic missions from the franchise’s past

FULL RELEASE NOTES: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t...ailable/555296

**ak416** · November 11th, 2022, 07:20

389.7mb update to the launcher, 21.71GB update via Installation Manager for the Steam version.

Some of the new content is optional and must be downloaded via the in-game Marketplace. If you are looking for a new item that came with the update but cannot find it, double check that you have downloaded it from the Martketplace first.

If you would like to read something to occupy your time while waiting for the update to download, here are some articles regarding the 40th Anniversary Edition.

FS Elite: Hands-On with Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition

The Verge: How Microsoft finally landed helicopters and gliders for Flight Simulator(Jorg Nuemann Interview)

**keithb77** · November 11th, 2022, 07:26

Downloading now...going quickly...

***SpaceHippy1975*** · November 11th, 2022, 08:04

Hooo-wheee, just seen the DC-3 is around 10gb on it's own!

All downloading well here in Blighty but my 1Tb SSD drive is gonna fill up pretty quickly!

Keith.

**Edit** Took just over an hour to download everything.

***jankees*** · November 11th, 2022, 08:17

downloading now, going slow...

**paiken** · November 11th, 2022, 08:47

Installed! The DC-3 is just amazing! Haven't done any fancy stuff yet, just a quick trip around the Phoenix area to get a feel for the grand old dame. The visuals are crisp and clean, the sounds are quite honestly thrilling.

***Twice43*** · November 11th, 2022, 10:59

Originally Posted by jankees

downloading now, going slow...

Looks like my D/L has taken 4 hours.
T43

***jankees*** · November 11th, 2022, 22:33

what surprises me is that we get three seaplanes, but they still haven't bothered to give us any decent wake textures. OK, the H4 is not so bad, but the Goose?
What is the point of the Goose anyway, we already have two?
But the Beaver is nice ànd comes with some nice textures too.
I'm surprised they did not give us an aviators club texture for the Wright or the H-4...

***jmig*** · November 12th, 2022, 04:28

Does this update do anything other than provide more airplanes and airports? I know it has gliders and helicopters, so I guess that in itself is an update.

Yesterday, it started updating on me as soon as I started MSFS. Took a couple of hours and then the splash screens were new. However, I haven’t seen if they fixed any historical issues.

***ColoKent*** · November 12th, 2022, 05:27

DennyA...Looks to me like you and I are are basically in agreement on all points, although I admit that I shouldn't have used the sweeping generalization "everything" in my earlier post ("some things" would have been more accurate). Overall, I'm happy with the direction MSFS is going...Bottom line: I just wish they wouldn't water down third party add-ons that they acquire.

Cheers,

Kent

**wells** · November 12th, 2022, 07:07

I'm surprised they did not give us an aviators club texture for the Wright or the H-4...

Aviator's club, lol, that's funny

I suspect they wanted the Goose, since it was in previous versions of the sim

***Tom Clayton*** · November 12th, 2022, 07:34

Downloading now, but as I look through some of the folders being installed, I see things that are making some previous purchases obsolete. They're doing a hand-crafted TNCM, but I already have that airport purchased a while back from the Marketplace - so I'll now have two versions of that airport in the Official folder. I'll uninstall the purchase and have a look at Asobo's, but I have a feeling I'll end up deleting theirs and going back to the payware version.

***ColoKent*** · November 12th, 2022, 08:17

Originally Posted by Tom Clayton

Downloading now, but as I look through some of the folders being installed, I see things that are making some previous purchases obsolete. They're doing a hand-crafted TNCM, but I already have that airport purchased a while back from the Marketplace - so I'll now have two versions of that airport in the Official folder. I'll uninstall the purchase and have a look at Asobo's, but I have a feeling I'll end up deleting theirs and going back to the payware version.

Oh my...all of that has me wondering what this latest update might have messed up...

Kent

**ak416** · November 12th, 2022, 08:32

My overall impressions after spending basically all day yesterday trying out the new aircraft and other features.

The aircraft are a bit of mixed bag. My favourites so far are the Beaver, the Cabri G2 and the 407. I really wanted to like the DC-3 but it just isn't there for me. Lots of issues with the 3d model and textures aren't great either. I think dvj summed it up pretty well, it's very much in line with what AH has putting out for MSFS. The Goose and the Spruce Goose are fine but they just aren't really my cup of tea. The Wright Flyer, the Jenny, and the NYP are nice but not super practical for much of anything aside from recreating historic flights. The NYP 3d model is spectacular though, I'm happy to have such a faithful recreation in the sim. I don't like gliding so I didn't enjoy the gliders but they seem very well made and I had no issues with the towplane or winch.

The new heliports are also a bit of a mixed bag, but the custom ones I've seen like the Needles lighthouse and some of the skyscrapers in Dubai and Hong Kong are excellent.

The missions are just so incredibly disappointing. No voice acting, no custom scripting, no custom 3d models, you are basically just instructed to fly from point A to point B while a robot talks to you. I saw someone mention on the official forums that at least one of the missions used the voice acting from previous games, but so far I've heard nothing but text to speech. There's no intercepting UFO's, no rescue missions, no flower bombing, no slingloading, nothing that made the missions in previous games standout is there. I would have rather had 5 excellent missions than 24 poorly made ones.

Considering everything is free, I'm not going to complain too much, there is a lot of stuff in this update that I really enjoy but I really wish they had added a little more structure in the missions as I was really looking forward to them.

***jankees*** · November 11th, 2022, 09:06

but why do we always get these utterly ridiculous paintschemes? Same with the JU-52 and all other MS releases.
oh well...

**keithb77** · November 11th, 2022, 09:10

All looks good...but no more flying for me until tomorrow now!

**DennyA** · November 11th, 2022, 09:13

Note that the A310 and DC-3 are separate downloads in the Marketplace and aren’t included as part of the update process.

Sad that the Secret Shuttle mission from FSX didn’t get included, because (1) we would have had a “stock” UFO object, and (2) I did a voice for that.

Downloading now!

**DennyA** · November 11th, 2022, 09:17

Originally Posted by jankees

but why do we always get these utterly ridiculous paintschemes? Same with the JU-52 and all other MS releases.
oh well...

For most of the planes, you can search for "Aviators Club" in the Content Manager, select those liveries, and delete them from your drive. I have 94 Aviators/Xbox Aviators liveries showing in my "Not Installed" list at this point.

**UnknownGuest12** · November 11th, 2022, 09:21

Originally Posted by jankees

but why do we always get these utterly ridiculous paintschemes? Same with the JU-52 and all other MS releases.
oh well...

100% with you...what a regretfull! and what about C-47? where is it?

Otherwise no problems with download and install.

**keithb77** · November 11th, 2022, 10:14

DC-3 is there for me, no content manager/marketplace downloads needed...

I am going to need a RAF DC-3 livery ASAP though (and an Army Air Corp one for the Beaver) if Jankees is taking requests....

**UnknownGuest12** · November 11th, 2022, 15:50

Originally Posted by keithb77

DC-3 is there for me, no content manager/marketplace downloads needed...

I am going to need a RAF DC-3 livery ASAP though (and an Army Air Corp one for the Beaver) if Jankees is taking requests....

Yes, but I mean a C-47 with right epoch colours and mods...those skins, most of them will not to be use...terrible

***K5083*** · November 11th, 2022, 16:28

I think the nicest surprise is the Beaver. I like that we get wheels and floats, and it comes with an ipad that swaps out avionics and even opens doors! Is this the first stock MSFS plane with opening doors? How'd Milviz get away with that? They must have convinced MS that it was far enough along for the independent release that it was more trouble to delete the feature than keep it.

Flight models of all the planes seem OK, not outstanding. That and the simplified systems are what we expect from the OEM planes. For free, I'm not complaining.

All we need are repaints, repaints, repaints! Because just about all of the stock skins are stupid. But I'm sure we won't have to wait long.

August