This year has been a busy one for the development team at iFly. After previewing their upcoming 737 MAX add-on for Prepar3D this past summer, the aircraft has been undergoing extensive beta testing since the fall. However, iFly took to their forum to finally announce that the aircraft’s development is approaching the finish line.
The 737 MAX family is the next generation of aircraft in the long-lasting Boeing 737 aircraft line. However, after the worldwide grounding of the aircraft due to a design flaw, the future of the 737 MAX became unclear. But, after much scrutiny and system upgrades, the aircraft finally returned to service in late 2020. Since then, it has been slowly trying to prove itself that it is the hit aircraft that Boeing marketed it to be.
In this latest forum post, iFly stated that their 737 MAX has “been pulled onto [their] maintenance runway and is being readied for her first public customer carrying maiden flight.” From this, we can assume that the aircraft has finished beta testing or is nearing the completion of it. While no exact release date was provided, based on the progress we have seen over the past couple of weeks and these latest photo previews, it would be reasonable to assume that the aircraft will be released within the next couple of weeks.
Speaking of the photo previews, this is the first time the flight simulator has seen the extensive work put into the exterior model of the aircraft. Between all the lines in the landing gear, the ground service equipment, and the Satcom antenna, it is clear that iFly has spent a lot of time trying to include all the small details of the actual 737 MAX. While some items, like the back area of the engines, don’t look as detailed as PMDG’s 737, this aircraft should still be an excellent addition to P3D. Finally, including the aircraft in the United Airlines livery was a nice addition, as we have only seen the aircraft in the default iFly livery.
FSElite will continue to monitor the status of the aircraft and hopefully bring news of a release soon.
Updated to remove the info about MSFS as it has been confirmed development is being considered.
