Some big progress is being made to the A32nx in Microsoft Flight Simulator as community developer FlyByWire decouples the standard A320neo and forges ahead with their own updates independently. This is an interesting and big moment for the aircraft. Let’s have a look at what it means.

A tale of two A320’s

Fans of the work that FlyByWire Simulations have done with the A32nx so far know that every time there’s a patch, people need to wait for FlyByWire to do an update before the aircraft will work again. But there’s good news on that front as FlyByWire and Asobo Studio have been working together to enable the team to continue to build a highly detailed representation of the A320neo for the sim will decoupling it from the patch to patch problem. The agreement has enabled FlyByWire to offer the A32nx as a separate aircraft, still available completely for free, through their own launcher as well as through the Marketplace within Microsoft Flight Simulator.

In a statement made on the FlyByWire Simulations Facebook page on April 2nd, the developers announced the big change. Here’s what they said:

This is a heads-up that in approximately four hours from now, we will begin packaging and distributing the A32NX as a separate aircraft from the default Asobo A320neo. This has been planned for several months now and is a necessary step to reduce compatibility issues as well as make the A32NX available through the in-game MSFS marketplace in the near future (of course, still remaining freeware).

FlyByWire Simulations

This is great news not only for the enthusiasts at FlyByWire that have made the long process of turning the A320neo in Microsoft Flight Simulator into a highly detailed aircraft in its own right, but also for Asobo Studios and the entire simulation. FlyByWire is adding a lot of value through their efforts and ensuring that fans of airliner simulation have something that is increasingly more detailed and closer to the real thing than the simplified version.

I’ve actually had quite a bit of fun with the simplified version in the sim already and it will have its place within the sim so there’s lots of reasons to rejoice on the split.

Clearing any confusion

I thought the initial statement was relatively clear, but FlyByWire Simulations has felt it necessary to clear up any confusion that the A32NX would still remain an entirely free product but that it would become part of the Marketplace as a free product.

Here’s what they said:

We would like to offer some clarifications regarding the recent announcement.The A32NX project will remain free and open-source forever. There have been many false claims of the plane becoming a payware addon, and fake images showing the plane costing 90 EUR on the Marketplace. We want to make clear that the Marketplace offering is going to be free, and will simply be an additional option to download our Stable releases.In addition to this, our upcoming A380X addon is also going to be free and open-source as soon as public alpha v0.1.0 opens up. Any speculation of either project becoming payware is completely incorrect.

So, not to worry!

Development continues on A32nx and A380

The FlyByWire have been very busy building updates to the A32nx and A380 projects. Only recently we saw them showcase their work on the A380 but that hasn’t slowed things down with the A32nx either. There’s been a few dozen updates via their Facebook and Twitter pages that have talked about improved modeling for everything from the engines and their detailed dynamics to a total recreation of the fly by wire system on the airliner. It’s even getting some new sounds added to the mix.

Check out FlyByWire Simulations on Facebook and Twitter for more!