Verticalsim has taken to Facebook to announce that St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (KPIE) in the U.S. State of Florida will be their next scenery project for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Originally constructed as a fighter training base at the outset of World War II, today, KPIE sees well over 2 million passengers annually pass through its 150,000 square foot (13,940 square meters) terminal and twelve gates. Commercial airline service is provided by low-cost carrier, Allegiant Air, with the surrounding area being one of the airline’s top 3 domestic markets. The airport is also home to the largest and busiest Air Station in the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Customs office, a U.S. Army Reserve Aviation Support Facility, two general aviation fixed-base operators, and an FAA-operated control tower.
VerticalSim’s KPIE promises to include the 2023 airport layout using high-grade aerial imagery, full PBR texturing of airport buildings, custom static models, and will be fully compatible with their VCities Tampa freeware. The airport seems to fit in nicely with the lineup of Verticalsim’s other Florida airports for MSFS: KTPA, KSRQ, and the currently under-development, KPBI. The full feature list for KPIE is included below.
No details about release timing have been provided yet, but stay tuned to FSElite for updates!
Features:
- Parallaxed terminal w/simple interior for maximum performance
- 1-spawnable hangar for GA flights
- Fully modeled accurate ANG, USCG, and FBOs
- LOD’s for optimization
- Custom high-grade aerial imagery
- 2023 airport layout
- Custom static models: Coast Guard C130s & Jayhawks, ANG UH-60s
- Custom taxiway signage, obstruction lights, guard lights, etc.
- High-resolution accurate texturing of airport buildings with the full PBR suite
- Custom Bayside Bridge model (Download VCities Tampa for free for a custom Tropicana Field)
