Synaptic Simulations just wrapped up a 90-minute livestream in which the team showed off a number of modelling and systems improvements on their upcoming Airbus A220 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024.
The stream also gave the development team, lead By Harsh, Mike and Shaye, a chance to answer community questions about the state of the addon.
Perhaps the headline takeaways, however, were that the aircraft will be available for test flights at the iniBuilds stand at this year’s Flight Sim Expo at Providence, Rhode Island later in June. The team are also eyeballing a full release for Q4 2025.
After kicking off with a cinematic trailer showing the aircraft lining up on a runway and lifting off, the team launched straight into the visual fidelity of the aircraft’s interior and exterior model. Most of the stream’s run time was devoted to previewing this.
We saw individually modelled rivets across every surface, with gaps present where dirt and grime were shown to have built up. This was in part due to iniBuilds’ dynamic weathering system for MSFS 2024 which the team repeatedly mentioned was in use on the aircraft. A lot of the detailing is in the aircraft’s mesh and not the textures, meaning that the textures (though very high resolution) don’t take such a huge performance hit.
In fact the developers were very keen to point out that the extraordinary visual fidelity on show was not equating to any performance hit, saying quote “[we are] providing details in a way that will be meaningful to the consumer while also remaining performant”.
High resolution decals are accurate across the aircraft, such as stickers on the gear struts and near static ports and exterior panels, which will all be operable during the walk-around in MSFS 2024. All of this is done to a level “not commonly seen in flight simulator” according to the team, and has been meticulously cross referenced against thousands of real world images.
As we moved towards the APU outlet and engines, we saw that slight oxidisation was visible on the metallic surfaces. We also saw evaporation marks on the painted surfaces like the vertical stabiliser and wings. Commenting, the team said “we want to have all of the basic models and wear but not overdo it on performance”.
“The goal is to immerse the consumer as much as possible” and “to create the most high-fidelity A220 available in flight simulator”.
While looking around the exterior we saw the cargo bay fully modelled. It was also here that we learned after many questions in the chat that all in-simulator shots were filmed on Mike’s “moderate” PC and frame rates are holding up well at medium settings. This was with a spec of 9th Gen i7, 3070 base card with 32GB of memory.
The engines on the A220 are the Pratt and Whitney PW1500Gs, a standard GTF. The simulated rendition features openable engine cowlings and working latches. “Every part of this plane has been modelled without compromise”, said the team.
Then our attention shifted to the inside and the cabin. This has been modelled off the Korean Air configuration because that’s what the team had the most reference images for, although airline-specific interiors and decals will be available on a per-livery basis. The cabin crew’s flight operations panel will be operational upon release, with features including user controllable lights. We even saw that the team have created interact-able overhead baggage bins. There are plans to eventually make items in the galley interact-able too, and the cabin will be available in both MSFS 2020 and 2024.
After this we finally got into the cockpit. Granular texture mapping has been faithfully represented across the cockpit. Wear and tear from finger oil and dirt is visible on buttons, the glare shield, plastic panels where hands would go, etc. Every single panel gap has been modelled with a mesh and not just textures, which means dirt is really caked up in areas that aren’t cleaned so frequently. Materials on the plane are also bespoke for each part.
One of the team’s favourite areas was the pedestal, where it was pointed out that some panels have different shades, and that’s intentional. A scanner was used to get exact hex values for each panel’s colour on the real aircraft. All of this talk of dirt and grime is great for simmers looking for an authentic rendition of a regularly used aircraft, although a clean cockpit will be available for those who want it.
An accurate and performant sheep skin affect has been applied on the seats. Here, the team said the texturing method used had brought out the attributes of the sheep skin. “We wanted to get every surface to a level where you could look at it and think, I know what this would feel like to touch”.
The stream then moved onto systems. Although we didn’t see much here and the team were hit with some technical difficulties in their video playback, we saw that the electrical and fuel systems have both been re-worked since the last stream.
Fully modelled fly-by-wire and FADEC systems have been coded and implemented. The team pointed out that the FADEC works linearly, on a scale of 0-100% thrust where full throttle lever input corresponds to a maximum thrust setting – this doesn’t always correspond to a linear increase in N1%, though.
We got to see an APU start and a takeoff in the plane during this segment. One of the more interesting features unique to the A220 is that upon passing 24% N1 during the takeoff roll, the aircraft deflects the vertical stabiliser so as to apply additional control authority to the nose wheel. This is similar to procedures used on A320 and 737 flight decks where the crew will apply a nose down input during the takeoff roll during the low-speed regime, although on the A220 it’s a pretty nifty automatic feature!
After the systems preview was wrapped up, the team moved onto their Q&A session, as well as showing off their development roadmap. More updates will follow over the next few months as the team refine their existing work and implement some more of the essentials for A-to-B flight, such as autopilot, LNAV and VNAV. These are all systems that will be implemented at the product’s release, however the team said these systems are not currently in a state where they are comfortable showing them off. That suggests that the plane as it is in its current development state is really only capable of being hand-flown, although the team said that for FSExpo they were hoping to have an autopilot working.
Without further ado, though, here are some of the questions that the team were asked:
Liveries? The product will ship with house liveries, others will be made available through in-house painters and fs.to. In-house liveries will be available on iniManager.
Business class cabin? Possibly, but the team will examine the feasibility of this down the line. In reality most operators of the A220 fly the type in an all-economy configuration, so this is probably less likely.
Cabin announcements? Yes it’s in the plan for nearer to release.
CPDLC/ACARS? The Synaptic Simulations team is working to bring a new implementation of CPDLC to flight sim because Hoppie is, in their words, “simply not up to snuff”. This is still a work in progress, and the team is trying to get everyone including virtual air traffic networks like VATSIM and IVAO to agree to a common interface.
Price? The team haven’t decided on one yet. It will be reasonably priced and at launch the -100 and -300 variants will be included, with an ACJ coming down the line as separate DLC.
RAAS/BTV? The A220 has a built in surface management system which provides a lot of the features of a conventional RAAS. This will be implemented but the team is not sure if it will work with default nav-data. It will definitely work with Navigraph nav-data. The A220 does not have a BTV system so this will not be included.
What’s next after the A220? The team said “we have an idea for another modern jet that the community might like, but we are not in a position to share details on that”.
HUD? This is planned for Q1 26 post-release.
GSX integration will be coming, and holds are implemented in the FMS logic. The plane will be ready for VATSIM on day 1.
GPS spoofing/jamming? Should be possible, the team just need to make sure the logic for “hey I have no GNSS data – what do I do?” Is working in the same way it does on the real aircraft.
Failures? Failure states will naturally occur but triggering them via the EFB and making sure they all behave correctly will come post release. There will be no public beta test. Circuit breakers are all implemented and interact-able.
And that about sums up the A220 development stream. The FSElite team will be sure to drop by the iniBuilds stand to speak to the Synaptic developers and give the A220 a spin, and we’ll report back when we have an idea of how it feels!
