Microsoft has taken the wraps off, at long last, the Top Gun: Maverick expansion pack for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Delayed alongside the movie launch, the DLC pack is now available for download and here’s what’s inside. Did I mention it was free?

The need, for speed!

This free content update Microsoft Flight Simulator owners is part of a cross promotion that Microsoft Flight Simulator has with Top Gun Maverick.

Asobo have spent the last year upgrading Microsoft Flight Simulator’s functions so that it could successfully support some of the features needed to make this DLC package work. From supersonic flight to overwing vapour effects, the sim has come along way and it paves the way for some fun moments.

Available for flight since the anniversary release last year has been the F/A-18E Super Hornet. Although not a full featured aircraft, it provides just enough of that fighter pilot experience to give the average MSFS pilot the thrill of flying a fighter jet – potentially for the first time in a flight sim.

The expansion now launches with a ton of content for the F/A-18 that includes navigation challenges, aircraft carrier landing, challenges, and training modules to get you up to speed in the Super Hornet. Also, emerging from the shadows, is the fictional Darkstar hypersonic prototype aircraft complete with Scramjets and a maximum altitude capability of 120,000 feet. An included scenario challenges you to complete a test flight from NAWS China Lake all the way to Cape Canaveral. The flight time? 35 minutes!

Here’s what the press release has to say about the expansion.

Develop the skills required and navigate complexities encountered by actual Top Gun pilots in authentic locations, including a carrier deck landing challenge, one of the most demanding operations in the world of military aviation. The Top Gun: Maverick expansion also contains a Maverick Edition livery for the F/A-18E Super Hornet, Super Hornet training missions that will introduce you to radical flight maneuvers, five high-speed, low-level challenges through mountains and canyons, a never-before-unveiled hypersonic aircraft, and a mission to roar into the stratosphere.

And of course no release for Microsoft Flight Simulator is complete without a trailer. Check it out below and visit the Xbox Microsoft Flight Simulator website for even more.

All of this is part of the marketing for the movie, Top Gun: Maverick that’s come to theatres yesterday in North America and in many other parts of the world. 30-years after the original, Tom Cruise reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as a veteran hotshot pilot training the next generation of TOPGUN aces to undertake a high stakes military operation.