Flight Sim Studio’s Maren Krull has published a lengthy update on the status of their E-jets series of aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The aircraft have been out for about a year new in an early access state with the work on the aircraft coming in regular doses. There are a few outstanding features, ones that matter significantly to the community, and we’ve got a good update on where they are at with them.

Progress

The update starts with a look at their progress and there certainly has been some. The E-jets series has continued to receive regular updates from the team as they develop the aircraft. A critical piece is the systems that have been re-coded into WASM for higher performance. FMS speeds controls are in as are many sound improvements, vertical autopilot modes, and approach status annunciators.

They have also released the E-jets 19X and 19X Freighter and are working with their partners at X-Crafts on the Lineage VIP version of the aircraft. This is an E190 derivative with a luxury cabin.

Set backs

That’s plenty of good progress. Unfortunately the one piece of news that I know a lot of airliner simmers was hoping for has not materialized just yet. The fully custom FMS and autopilot systems is taking longer to code than they had hoped. It’s something they started a long time ago and have since developed significantly but they still have many critical items on their list.

Their custom system now does routes and departures but it doesn’t yet have route drawing that includes curves depending on speeds. That’s a summary of a more complex item but it is taking time to do. The custom autopilot needs this to follow the route as the default built in autopilot does not have enough to be able to follow this. They also report that they want to move the MCDU over from JavaScript (which is slower) to WASM (which is faster).

They seem hesitant to offer a new deadline as the current deadline has past and they still have a road ahead of them. But there is good progress and good foundational work that will serve them well into the future.

E2 models?

Embraer have recently been making significant inroads into the market with their enhanced E195E-2 series. As it turns out, I’m currently writing this update from the seat one such aircraft. So, is FSS going to do an E2 model?

The answer right now is not yet. They report that their development schedule is full with finishing their custom FMS and autopilot systems and working on other features for the current lineup.

It does sound, however, like they have a desire to go in that direction eventually. Meanwhile I suspect most people are going to be happy to hear that they have held off on doing anything more extensively new until they get to a good state with the current plans. Still, I am hoping for an E2 model for sure as they are a very interesting update to the original E195.

Read all of the update from FlightSim Studio on their website!