The latest Microsoft Flight Simulator blog update focuses on the partnership with FlightAware. FlightAware is an aviation intelligence company that provides real-time and predictive flight insights to companies and users around the world. Often, it is used to see real-world flight data thanks to the 28,000 ADS-B machines all around the world.
This partnership series was given in an interview format between representatives from both Microsoft and FlightAware to give the community an insight into how the data will be used. As we’ve been already from numerous videos, real-world traffic can be injected into the world of Microsoft Flight Simulator. This data is pulled directly from FlightAware’s services and injected directly into your simulator. According to Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, he said that “out of the box, Flight Aware data will allow simmers to fly sharing their air space with the current air traffic but also to check arrivals and departure from airports, select any flight to see its [flight] plan and even have the possibility to, virtually of course, take controls.”
FlightAware was founded back in 2005 with an ambition to take flight data and put it through their hyperfeed solution to be able to give real-time data to users. FlightAware is used by the likes of Google, Airport notification boards and various airline systems to get live data. The data is gathered from an ADS-B machine, which can be hosted by anyone around the world. In the blog post, FlightAware describes how someone with a $100 Raspberry Pi can set up their own ADS-B device to start tracking real-world data.
Alpha Invites, Alpha 5 and Closed Beta
More alpha invites are being sent out today so check your inbox. Microsoft also confirmed that Alpha 5 is inbound on July 9th. Once it drops, we’ll let you know along with the changelog.
Microsoft anticipates announcing the release date of the Closed Beta on July 9th 2020.
Feedback Snapshot
A new feedback snapshot was shared with the community, which highlights some of the issues with the alpha which are being addressed. Along with that Microsoft has shared what their top questions are regarding the simulator and the wish list. You can see everything in the image below.
Community Screenshots
As usual, a bunch of screenshots taken by the community have also been shared.
