In a groundbreaking announcement made on the FSElite stage during the FSExpo weekend, Aerosoft have announced they are partnering with well renowned third party developers ToLiss to bring the Airbus A340 into Microsoft Flight Simualtor.
The foray represents ToLiss’ debut in the Microsoft Flight Simulator ecosystem, the developers already being highly lauded name in the X-Plane third party addon market with their suite of high fidelity Airbus A32X aircraft.
During the presentation made on the FSElite stage, Aerosoft’s CEO Winfried Diekmann also shared more details on the company’s upcoming and previously announced Airbus A330-900neo for MSFS, as well as an upcoming optimisation update to the Frankfurt Mega Airport, a new Stuttgart scenery for MSFS, Frankfurt coming to X-Plane and the recently announced Paris CDG mega airport for MSFS.
A340 Coming in Partnership with ToLiss
By far and away the biggest story of the session though was the announcement of a groundbreaking new partnership with the much-lauded X-Plane developer ToLiss. Together, Aerosoft and ToLiss will work on bringing a feature-rich and accurate A340 simulation to MSFS. Aerosoft says they will be handling the modelling work on the addon, while ToLiss works on the systems. Given how ToLiss is already known in the X-Plane community for their deep systems functionality, this is a partnership which is bound to raise eyebrows among the community.
Although the aircraft is still in active development, we were shown a feature video which depicted an engine #2 fire after takeoff. Accurate and correct ECAM memos were displayed following the detection of the fire, which the simmer then has to follow to successfully extinguish the fire. We see in the video that after gear up is selected, the engine thrust lever is retarded and the master switch turned off. The fire button is then pushed and, after 20 seconds of fire still being indicated, agent 2 is dispatched. The engine master switch is then switched to “ignition” per the ECAM memos, which brings up another non-normal checklist for an abnormal bleed condition which the simmer must then tackle.
Cross bleed is closed, followed by PACK 1 being switched off and the cargo air conditioning turned off. With sufficient height gained above terrain by this point and auto throttle disengaged, the other 3 engines can be safely spooled down as the aircraft prepares to make an immediate return to the airport.
Although it is just one video, it goes to show the level of systems depth and failure simulation already present in the aircraft at this stage in development. From the video we can also see a very nicely modelled cockpit with all the applicable textures, which when complimented by the failure simulation may go some ways to suggesting the aircraft is already near to a release. We’ll be asking Aerosoft this and for an indication of the price over the weekend.
A330-900neo First Look
During Aerosoft’s presentation we also got a good look at the studio’s upcoming A330-900neo for the sim. Given the relationship with ToLiss on the A340, we’re not sure whether this product will be comparable in terms of systems modelling to the A330ceo, which faced a very problematic launch last year, or the A340. However we did see that the modelling on the exterior seems to be complete and that overall the aircraft looks to be in a near-ready state of development. We also got a first listen to the Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines, the exclusive power unit of the A330neo family.
Aerosoft CEO Winfried Diekmann did excuse the sorry state of the A330ceo, blaming the poor quality of the aircraft at launch on the fact that the company’s government contract forced them to released the commercial product with old code. He did assure us that the NEO version will feature entirely new systems code.
Scenery in Development
Alongside the major aircraft announcements, the Aerosoft team also gave some details on an upcoming optimisation update for their MSFS rendition of Frankfurt, Paris CDG, and Frankfurt for X-Plane.
That about sums up the Aerosoft presentation from the FSElite stage. Stay tuned to our social media feeds as we continue to bring you all of the latest news, announcements and coverage from this weekend’s show in Providence, RI.
