Hardware

Mostly known for their gamer-centric headsets, Turtle Beach has today announced a new set of flight controls designed for Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series S|X and Windows 10. Announced on their website earlier today, the VelocityOne Universal Flight Controls will include both a yoke and a modular throttle quadrant.

Turtle Beach says that they have collaborated with both engineers and pilots to design and produce the flight controls. Using the skills and experience of producing other gaming controllers and headsets, the team at Turtle Beach say they have created the most comprehensive flight control solution that anyone can easily set up and play.

Looking closely at the yoke, we can see there are plenty of features to enable pilots to get to grips with the flight controls. The yoke has a true-to-life 180-degree rotation and comes with non-contact hall effect sensors. This means the control set is built to last and precise movements will be sent to the simulator with minimal latency. The status indicator panel will simulator real-time status alerts and monitor essential cockpit, navigation and engine systems and warnings. The colours can be changed and in the future, the panel can be swapped. Furthermore, there are integrated rudder controls (trigger buttons) on the yoke, two HAT and two POV switches, and also an onboard flight management display that enables you to monitor various pieces of flight information.

The modular throttle quadrant, which appears to be attached directly to the yoke unit, comes with both dual and vernier controls. The interchangeable set-up means you can swap out the jet throttle controls and use general aviation styled throttle parts. Additionally, the built-in trim wheel will enable you to fine-tune your flying so you can fly precisely.

The VelocityOne Univeral Control System will be compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator when it launches on Xbox Series X|S in July and will also be compatible with Windows 10.

TurtleBeach’s Velocity One will sell for $349.95 / £329.99 and although pre-orders aren’t live yet, you can sign up for notifications via their product page. We’ll also do our best to notify you of when pre-orders of the VelocityOne starts.

We’re excited to see how TurtleBeach entering the market will have an impact and how well they will cope with demand. As we’ve seen with Honeycomb Aeronautical and other manufactures, securing components for hardware has been incredibly challenging the past year.

Hardware developer Honeycomb Aeronautical has given a small production update for those awaiting Alpha and Bravo units from the company. It has been many months since the initial batch of units were release, but the team has seen various challenges over the past few months which has led to a lack of inventory on their own website and at multiple outlets. The team wanted to address some of these issues and has done so through Facebook.

In their Facebook post, the team listed a handful of reasons as to why there has been a lack of units even since the initial release. The first reason is attributed to the electronics industry facing component shortages. This is impacting a huge number of products including those produced by Honeycomb Aeronautical. They said that some of the components that they need have a typical lead time of 6-7 months, despite having a backup inventory of these specific components, the team have used them up to produce units at maximum capacity.

Even after the units have been produced, Honeycomb Aeronautical has also got a challenge with container availability from Asia. They said that Honeycomb needs to wait several weeks for availability to ship products to the resellers around the world. That said, the team said that there are shipments on the way to resellers. To try and circumvent some of the issues, Honeycomb has allocated some of its inventory to ship directly from Hong Kong via FedEx and only charge 30% of the actual cost to the customer. This has been a popular option and as such, they sell out as quickly as they make them available in the shop.

On another note, the team shared an image for dust covers that Honeycomb uses at various tradeshows to keep their products in good condition. The team has asked if the community would want to purchase one if they were on sale. Honeycomb hasn’t confirmed this will actually happen but said that an estimated price would likely be $14.99. Feel free to share your thoughts with Honeycomb Aeronautical.

Whilst some of the challenges are beyond the control of Honeycomb Aeronautical, the team want to thank the community for the support and will continue to post updates on tech issues and solutions.

Whilst getting a unit is difficult, you can check out our review to see what we through on the Bravo Throttle Quadrant.