We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to get through thanks to several simultaneous releases from the Microsoft Flight Simulator team. This week, the team is marking four years since the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator to the public and there’s some cool content they’ve put together marking the release. Then we have World Update XVIII which is focused on Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Following that, we have the release of the Fw200 and a really cool Discovery video focused on The Condorians who are a group that have been working for a decade or more to restore a Fw200 to its original airliner configuration. Phew! Let’s go!

World update

The latest world update goes back to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and brings with it even higher levels of details for those areas of the world with new elevation mapping, imagery, TIN and more. The update includes 116 points of interest and 3 new handcrafted airports. Those airports are:

• Austria’s Salzburg Airport (LOWS)
• Germany’s Munich Airport (EDDM)
• Bern Airport (LSZB) in Switzerland

And of course there’s a trailer with all of the beautiful sights.

Condor released

The long range Focke-Wulf Fw200 Condor is an aircraft I know best as a combat airplane used for long range patrols but the type has a very different origin as a long distance airliner designed with some of the latest in aviation technology in the 1930s. It’s that original legacy that the developers of this project have focused on.

The aircraft was developed by Oliver Moser (who did the Ju52 among other aircraft) with art support from the iniBuilds team. It comes with three liveries, Classic Passenger (Black), Classic Passenger (Red), and Classic Metallic.

The Fw200 is available for $14.99 USD in the MSFS Marketplace.

That’s not quite all with the Fw200 as Microsoft Flight Simulator became part of the effort to complete the restoration process on the Fw200 with a group that called themselves the Condorians.

The story includes some of the footage from when the aircraft was first recovered in 1999 and the collapse of the aircraft from the crane that was used to hoist it out of the water. Incredibly they were able to piece it back together again and restore it to a museum piece.

As Jorg conveyed to us in the last Q&A we also learned that Microsoft helped connect The Condorians with a collector selling all of the components that they had collected from various sources over a lifetime from the cockpit of Fw200s. So not only does the museum version now have a restored cockpit but we also benefit from having a reasonably accurate digital representation.

Looking back at four years, plus World Hub Update

Released on August 18, 2020, it’s been an incredible four years since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The team is marking the occasion with four YouTube short videos showing key milestones of the sim through year one, two, three and four. It’s a really cool way to go back in time and look at what the sim has achieved.

Before I get to the videos, there’s also a note about the World Hub. The closed alpha will shut down tomorrow (August 23). Previously submitted and approved updates will be included in the next NavData cycle update aimed for a September 5 release. This isn’t the end, however, for World Hub with the update noting the following.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone from the flight sim community who participated in the World Hub Closed Alpha these last several months. The primary reason we’re choosing to shut down the Closed Alpha now is because the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 later this year includes updated aerial data. This will alter the positioning of all real-world airports, and impact Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 as world data is shared between both sims.

Following the release of MSFS 2024, World Hub will return in early 2025 and apparently there will be new details to learn about it when it does reemerge. Sounds like a successful alpha test and the beginning of something great for airport upgrades all around the world.

And now, let’s go and look at the year by year YouTube shorts!