Flight Simulator Gets World Update For US And Maybe Space Shuttle
Microsoft has released the tenth World Update for Flight Simulator. The update improves the display of the United States and US territories. The publisher also hints in a video about the possible arrival of the Space Shuttle to Flight Simulator.
World Update X contains 87 points of interests that have been graphically enhanced, including monuments and landscapes in the national parks. The update also improves the 3D rendering of several cities, including San Diego, Albany, Key Largo, Seattle and Olympia.
The update also includes four handcrafted airports: Catalina on California’s Santa Catalina Island, Valdez in Alaska, Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada Desert, and Block Island in the state of Rhode Island. The tenth World Update, like the previous updates, is free for owners of Flight Simulator on PC and consoles. The game is also available through the Game Pass subscription.
Collaboration with museum where Space Shuttle is located
Microsoft has in the Xbox Showcase Extended provided more information about the collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. In November this year, the 40th Anniversary Edition of Flight Simulator will be released, which contains a number of historic aircraft that are in the museum.
The museum and the Flight Simulator team have been in talks for over a year. Nick Partridge of the museum talks about a collaboration that will yield more in the coming years. “Maybe we’ll go crazy and put the Space Shuttle in there,” he says. The museum owns the American space shuttle Discovery.
Space Shuttle Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum
Microsoft isn’t saying anything about a possible Space Shuttle addition, but the fact that this clip was shown in the video during the showcase may hint at the space shuttle being added in a future update.
This week Microsoft already added the fictional spaceship UNSC Pelican to the simulator. That’s a dropship from the Halo games. With the Top Gun DLC, Microsoft also added the fictional hypersonic plane SR-72 Darkstar. It is not possible to fly in space in Flight Simulator. The game goes up to an altitude of about 84 kilometers.
Paid Expansion: Beechcraft Model 18
Along with the tenth World Update, Microsoft has released a new plane in the Local Legends series. That’s about the Beechcraft Model 18, also known as the Beech 18. This twin-engine aircraft made its maiden flight in 1937. More than 9,000 copies were made between that year and the end of 1969. The model is available on the Flight Simulator marketplace for $15.