The folks at Flying Iron Simulations are busy working on a series of projects for DCS World and Microsoft Flight Simulator and they have just provided a status update on their work. Let’s dig into it and see what they have been up to!

The A-7E Corsair II

There’s great news coming from the team about systems and avionics on the DCS: A-7 project. Their update indicates that the majority of avionics and weapons have been integrated. That includes the aircraft’s HUD, CCIP bombing modes, air-to-ground radar, radar altimeter, tactical computer and unguided weapons. Reportedly, the Waypoints system, Navigation, Radio and other systems are still in progress.

The other big area is the flight model. They are still working on their EFM for the A-7 with the goal of making it ready for SME testing. The update lists a series of areas that the model has improved over recent weeks with a significant increase in fidelity. That includes things like Mach effects, various flaps and their effect on the character of the airplane, spins, stalls, and high alpha modeling too.

Flying Iron has developed a development tool that they can use to do EFM tuning from within the sim which should hopefully streamline the feedback and improvement process.

It sounds like the A-7 is about to be sent off to their SMEs for testing and tuning which is good news for the development of this project.

Finally, the A-7 is undergoing an art overhaul. The explanation is that the initial model was extremely useful to them for their initial build-up process but that they do want to push the detail limits higher and as a result they have started over on the 3D model. That good news is that it already looks to be quite advanced in its visuals. Have a look a these screenshots for a look at the details.

F6F, Bf109 and FW190 for MSFS

Warbird fans in Microsoft Flight Simulator should pay close attention this one as Flying Iron has a series of aircraft in the works. Following up from their successful Spitfire IX and P-38 launches, it looks like they are set for a trio of new releases.

First, the F6F which is the furthest along. Flying Iron are working with flight model and systems coder Grav (aka GotGravel) who is taking this project on. The 3D model itself is apparently finished while textures remain a work in progress.

They also report having access to a high quality audio package that should enable them to build a very impressive WWise sound design for MSFS.

Early work in progress images of an FW190 “Anton” and Bf109 “Gustav” are also shown in the update. These are clearly not as far along but still coming to the sim.

All in all, progress looks to be good with Flying Iron Simulations and I’m excited to see what they can put together over the long run. Read their full update here!