Today’s Flight Simulator Q&A was chalk full of exciting news for the upcoming year. Among them was news about the inclusion of the famous Antonov AN-225, largest transport aircraft in the world, to the sim. The aircraft was famously and tragically destroyed at its home base of Hostomel Airport near Kiev during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not too long after it happened, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Jorg Neumann, suggested that there would be efforts to attempt to preserve the aircraft in a digital format. A year later, those efforts are coming to fruition.
iniBuilds creating the AN225
During today’s Microsoft Flight Simulator Dev Q&A where the team often shows off several surprises and makes announcements about the product, we learned that iniBuilds (who previously worked on the A310 for the 40th Anniversary project) were tackling the massive AN-225 Mriya.
During the Q&A we learned and saw quite a bit of the project. This is a impressive looking undertaking with full modeling of the cockpit, onboard living quarters, and the aircraft’s massive cargo hold.
The aircraft will be sold for about $20 USD on the MSFS marketplace and Jorg reported that proceeds are intended to go to Ukraine. Exact details to still be worked out.
It’s not entirely clear what features the aircraft will have but it will come with an EFB to help control some of the aircraft’s features and the massive cargo doors on front and back will open and close. Either at realistic rates or sped up rates if set via the EFB.
More details are coming soon and I will have a more complete report once the Q&A appears on the official YouTube!
Stormbirds 
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