Blue Bird Simulations, currently working on a 757 to be published by Just Flight, had a bunch of holiday updates that I missed out on previously. So here’s a bit of a catch-up on what’s happening with this developer and their 757. Did I mention that they have also announced a 767? Yep, it’s happening!

Two Boeings!

The big news is that Blue Bird Simulations has announced a follow up product to their 757 initially as a tease and then with full confirmation. Their team will be working on a 767, a larger widebody airliner, to compliment their 757 narrow body.

In addition to the announcement of the 757 they also released a series of videos demonstrating features as they start to implement them. All of the videos contain disclaimers that everything is very much a work in progress.

The first is a DME Arc demonstration.

Then we get to see the airliner perform an Autoland at KDFW.

Finally, there’s a Cold and Dark start-up sequence which is nearly always a good sign that the product is coming along well. Multiple systems need to be in place for this to come together.

There’s also been some pretty extensive writing by the developers on their Facebook page about the nature of their products and their company.

There’s a couple of lengthy quotes to pull out of it including some explanation of the kind of expertise that is on the team. Blue Bird Simulations is new but the team is apparently made up of veterans from other popular developments from the past.

Even though BlueBird Simulations is new company, the people behind the company including myself have over 50 years of combined development experience in flight sim. We are not newcomers to flight simming. Some of the aircraft were hugely popular addons (for various reasons I am not at liberty to mention which ones). I understand there will always be some skepticism until we deliver our first project. We are spending a lot of time and as a team are in this for the long haul. We are not here to make false promises or hype. We are here to develop aircraft that we are deeply passionate about. For me personally, I am not phased if 10 other devs are making a 757 or 767. We will make ours too. I also don’t think any other dev would be inclined to cancel their project if we are making a 757 or 767. If anything, my announcing the 767 might prompt another dev to push their 767 out sooner. Who knows. In the end that would only serve the community well to have choices.

The commentary about multiple developers tackling the same airliners is also interesting. With the kind of audience that MSFS commands, its unsurprising that with a large number of developers and a limited number of popular airliner models that there would eventually be crossover. Blue Bird Simulations appears to be unphased by other developers tackling similar airplanes.

The other big quote that I want to pull from their update is about the 757 with discussions about both release date and discussions around what is “study level” and what is “mid level” simulations. It’s a worthwhile topic to discuss as what Blue Bird intends to do is probably closer to study level as some may define it. I’ll let them take it away!

Regarding 757. We are on course as intended to get this bird to you guys in Q3/Q4 in this year. This entire project was started from scratch. We didn’t have an old model or code to build upon so naturally it is going to take a while to get it to the level that we want. That brings up the next topic. A lot of people think that if a plane is not “study level” then it is not worth flying. I personally do not like the term “study level“ as it has an ambiguous meaning for everyone. Even my own term “mid-level” might be confusing. For us, the priority is to make the 757 operate realistically under normal flight operations. We have not one but several 757 pilots and also engineers/crew that are helping with feedback and information to make sure the plane flies/operates as realistically as possible under normal conditions. This includes but not limited to flight dynamics, engine behavior , FMS etc. Even after the 757 is released, we will continue to support and build upon the 757 and release free updates/enhancements as necessary.

You can of course read all about this on their Facebook page with regular updates on the status of the product and what seems like a steady flow of videos featuring different elements of the 757, and now 767, as these projects come together.

Very exciting times for airliner fans in MSFS as there appears to be an airliner for almost everyone these days!