There was a blink and you’ll miss it sequence in the second MSFS trailer that showed off an A-10C in the background behind an F/A-18E. That together with the A-10’s appearance in the first MSFS trailer had many of us wondering who had created the aircraft. Then last week, Jorg Neumann confirmed in the MSFS Q&A who had created it. So let’s have a look at what’s going on here and on some other DC Designs updates.
A-10C for MSFS 2024
MSFS 2024 is clearly going for a wide variety of aircraft types right at launch. We’ve seen some military types appear in recent trailers too with the F/A-18E Super Hornet, launched with the Top Gun Maverick DLC, and the A400M make appearances. The A400M is an iniBuilds product while the A-10C was a bit of a mystery until this past week when the Q&A confirmed that it was done by DC Designs.
A post on the DC Designs Facebook has included the following message telling a bit of the story on the project.
Hi folks, so, after over a year of having to be very diplomatic and keep my silence about an aircraft that I first announced here over two years ago, I can finally speak about the A-10C Thunderbolt II project. Jorg Neumann announced the aircraft on the Microsoft Flight Simulator Developer Stream on Wednesday, allowing me to at least confirm my involvement. An early version of the aircraft was featured on the MSFS 2024 video trailer last year, but I was unable to speak about it at the time due to an NDA.
The update goes on to fill in a few additional details.
The A-10C project is why my other workflows have been slower for many months now. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator team purchased the project over a year ago, and I’ve been working on it in secrecy while also trying to update existing airplanes and release new projects that had also been announced some time ago, a very heavy workload for such a small developer. It’s been awesome though, and a real privilege to produce an official aircraft for the simulator. I know that there will be many questions about the A-10C, but I can’t answer much at the moment. However, enjoy the screenshots and I will share more information as soon as I am allowed to. The project work continues on the A-10C, so things will remain slower here until it’s cleared for release.
Clearly more information will be available but now we know where the project came from. The A-10C will be an interesting addition with the aircraft’s flying characteristics making it ideal for some types of civilian/non-combat flying, and offering some casual fun too, but obviously some of you will want to be able to make full use of its capabilities which the MSFS sim does not allow (you’ll need to head to DCS World for that).
Other DC Designs projects
There are a bunch of military aircraft for MSFS that are in development right now by DC Designs (and their sister operation SC Designs). These include an Su-27, F-4J, F-5E, and F-16C. All but the Flanker have been released either under the DC Designs name or under the similar SC Designs name which are now apparently merging together. These projects, though released, remain under constant development with the F-16C getting an updated cockpit and additional variants like the F-16D and F-16I. Here are two recent update (and work in progress images)
The F-4J Phantom is another recently released product. Again, though it has released, work continues to refine the visuals and features. Recent updates include flight model tweaks, corrected gear height stance, texture corrections and PBR work.
The last project I’ll update on today is DC Design’s latest project: an Su-27 Flanker. The aircraft is reportedly in testing with the flight model complete (and capable of Pugachev’s Cobra) while the sounds and testing remain incomplete. These images show off the visuals of the aircraft.
DC Designs reports that the Su-27 will be the last new aircraft launch of 2024 with further efforts going into refining previously released products over the course of the rest of the year.
All of these products can be found in the MSFS Marketplace for sale typically in the $25-40 USD range. Depending on the aircraft, you will definitely want to watch and read reviews to see what state the product is currently in. It’s certainly encouraging that the products continue to be updated and ongoing support is a good thing to see too.
Stormbirds 
Pretty disappointed to hear this Dev was chosen to make the A10. He makes some of my biggest disappointing purchases in MSFS. I hope Microsoft is holding him to a much higher standard. Some of his modules have been in update limbo for ages. There were just much better choices for military plane devs in my opinion.
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I’ve yet to review one of their products. Which aircraft(s) have you purchased and what were one or the two top issues with them?
Have you since purchased something higher end like something from Just Flight or IndiaFoxtEcho?
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I own his F15, F14, F16 and Harrier which I only ever purchased at a discount after the F15. I have a real issue with the quality of his cockpits as do many who comment under video reviews. He’s always promising they will improve while he rushes to the next new plane to pump out. I can’t even remember the last time he did an update to the Harrier. I personally have no respect for him after reading comments on his Discord. He blames any bad reviews on those pesky elitist DCS players. He caters to the high volume Xbox sales and doesn’t deny it. Obviously, it’s my personal opinion but as a paying customer I find his products greatly lacking compared to Just Flight, IndiaFoxTecho, Milviz and others. They actually take their time as opposed to always trying to be first to market and fix later. If I recall this A10 was supposed to be free for 2020. I seem to recall him telling customers not to buy the other one and be patient. His comments on Discord ended it for me.
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DC Designs made the F/A-18E included with MSFS, and released a freeware F/A-18C that was ported from FSX – with a decent flight model (for MSFS).
I jumped in to the F-15 just to have a fast jet in the sim – it was underwhelming, to say the least. Though it has improved a lot in the last few years. The other two I bought on holiday sales with deep discounts and that’s where the value kinda makes sense.
I will say they’ve gone back and added CFD flight models, which greatly improve the “feel” of the addons, but they’re still not fantastic (and I think a lot of that is due to inherent MSFS flight model limitations).
The thing to keep in mind is that these are all MSFS “mid-level” addons. Visually, they just aren’t up to general MSFS standards. And the systems are varying levels of make believe – e.g., you can’t follow a real world start-up procedure even for a simple aircraft like the F-14. And there are always a few fake switches and buttons that are actually game controls rather than anything in the real aircraft.
Combine the below average visuals & modeling with the “casual” systems and meh flight model and it’s an underwhelming experience except for the speed and visibility that makes fast jet flying so appealing.
Just Flight is far and away the better developer (no surprise given their history and resources). The Hawk and Vulcan are sublime examples of beautiful modeling and accurate systems. But their flight models are very “FSX” – accurate to the numbers, but very “mechanical”.
India Foxt Echo is also a better visual and systems developer, but their flight models are rather disappointing. With the exception of the collaboration with HeatBlur’s Tomcat, which is IMHO by far the best fast jet in the game (still lacking in the flight model area, tho).
All in all, I respect DC Designs because he’s honest about the target audience of his work, the prices, if purchased on sale, match the fidelity level, and the guy does go back and improve his addons over time.
I look forward to the A-10C as it might have a good flight model since it’s planform is one that matches MSFS’ current aero engine very well (straight wing bread and butter…), and it’s still a relatively good performer.
I’m hoping that his previously announced C-5 Galaxy and C-17 come to fruition in 2025 and are decent addons – we’ll see!
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I’d have to agree with JW on this one – DC/SC Designs etc. seem to be a rather low qual mixed bag on fidelity, FM and features. Modder sent out a rather arrogant nasty gram in the info pdf with the free F/A-18C experiment that really put me off personally, basically stating what JW did: quantity over quality. Overall, DC stuff just comes across as toys that don’t fly right with devs that don’t listen to user input. F-16C g onset is all off base, E-M retention still isn’t right either; completely different from the corrections made in DCS. F-15 has a g limit that shouldn’t be there with a FBW treatment that makes the stability a bit wonky. In other words, yes you do need to manually trim any F-15 and it’s never really statically stable in flight, rather only hydraulically boosted for control surfaces. Nav systems and switch replacements on panels are all screwy as well; might be convenient for MSFS, but ruins the immersion for anyone else used to proper workflows and knows how to TACAN search.
Honestly, I just don’t get them as devs and they’re really missing an opportunity to make one-offs like a Blue Angels F/A-18 (C or E)or Thunderbirds F-16C with the PW engine and a proper smoke system and really focus on the FM to get the edge of performance correct. Instead, we end up with rather cheap feeling dumbed down models that aren’t even fun to ferry fly somewhere, disappointing indeed.
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What is the appeal of flying military aircraft in MSFS if you can’t shot anything and none of the aveonics are modeled…🤔
Not being facetious, genuinely interested.
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For me it’s the fact I can fly the plane anywhere I want instead of limited maps which may not even be where the plane was used. Nothing like flying a Huey in actual Vietnam or flying in any of the current hotspots of the world. You do realize most combat pilots never actually see combat in their careers. I don’t have to shoot something down to simulate what most combat pilots actually do on a daily basis. Most of the time in DCS I’m sightseeing as well. I do expect my combat planes to look authentic though at the very least and not just when I’m in 3rd person mode.
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They’re Fast Jets that perform well and have great visibility out the bubble canopies. Makes them VERY fun to fly.
The avionics that count for civilian flying are very much modeled and make them IFR-capable. In fact, the navigation systems are in some ways much more capable than their IRL counterparts 🙂
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I also have wondered this. Seems to kind of defeat the point.
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I’ll admit, I’ve been covering this aspect of civil aviation flight sims for a while now and genuinely been surprised at both the availability and the interest that folks display in flying these aircraft.
I think there are multiple reasons that they are drawn in. For MSFS in particularly jet fighters let you experience a lot of scenery very quickly without the challenges of flying a 737 or A320. These are fast, high performance jets, and you can fly to see your house and check out a neighboring city fast. They are fun to fly around too so there’s that.
Not having some of the systems (the radar, the weapons, etc.) is a huge downside but for some folks I don’t think it necessarily is an issue.
There are some aircraft in MSFS that I do own that are military but I tend to focus on the DCS or IL-2 versions and then go civil aircraft in the civil sim. That said, transports like the C-160 are terrific fun but also not all that different from flying an airliner.
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