Aircraft maker IndiaFoxtEcho is busy releasing new content for Microsoft Flight Simulator right now and has just recently released two new pieces of content to go with their F-35 and T-45C aircraft that let you experience carrier operations in the sim. Content has been released and then updated and this the latest.

America and Ford class release

IndiaFoxtEcho has released two carriers for Microsoft Flight Simulator. One is an America class assault ship while the Ford class covers the supercarrier category. These pieces of “scenery” come with some limitations being stationary and static with no navigational aids. They also can’t be an arrival point and IndiaFoxtEcho recommends that collisions be turned off.

All of these are drawbacks but they do, as scenery objects, still let you land, takeoff, and use the catapults. That helps give you the experience of flying onto and off of those ships with supported aircraft.

There’s also been an update to the Ford-class which is meant to resolve the overly bumpy looking textures on the carrier’s deck as well as a solve to collision problems.

Once purchased and installed, these aircraft carriers will appear in the following locations.

USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78

• Near NAS Key West, Florida US
• Near Kingsville, Texas, US (T-45C Goshawk Carrier Qualification Configuration)
• Near Los Angeles, California, US
• Near Honolulu, Hawaii, US

USS John F. Kennedy CVN-79

• Off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, US
• Near Okinawa, Japan
• Near Norfolk, Virginia, US
• Adriatic Sea

USS Enterprise CVN-80

• Near Sigonella NAS, Italy
• Arabic Gulf, near Bahrein

Both the America-class and Ford-class are available from OrbxDirect and SimMarket and will eventually be on the MSFS Marketplace.

F-35 updates

Since release, IndiaFoxtEcho has been busy working on the F-35 to make sure its up to the quality levels that they want to hit. One of the biggest issues? Crash to desktop (my old MSFS foe). Although MSFS QA testing has indicated that the F-35 is a stable release in their testing, IndiaFoxtEcho is picking up large numbers of complaints about a crash to desktop.

Here’s what the developers had to say:

Unfortunately, after the initial claim by Microsoft that they were able to replicate CTDs on the F-35, their investigation did not lead to much.

The latest report we have received from them (on F-35 build 1.0.1) is that “it is a very solid build […] with no CTDs”.This is CLEARLY NOT THE CASE in reality – as way too many users are reporting problems with this plane. And frankly we do not believe it is acceptable that a user has to fiddle with his/her configurations for hours in order to get it to work.

The latest news, by the way, is that there are users who get rid of the CTDs by flying the T-45C first.

On the other hand, there are many users, including Microsoft test team apparently, that have no problems at all with the package – which makes the issue even more puzzling.

IndiaFoxtEcho

Their team continues to work on features as well with a more complete flight control system for the F-35, HUD corrections, and a code cleanup for the HUD/HMD display.

IndiaFoxtEcho also reports that they will have some updates on future projects coming soon.