It’s been in development for around four years now and its very nearly about to become something that anyone can download and fly for themselves. This is the FlyByWire A380X project and the team have just written up a new developer report that indicates that they are about to launch this freeware aircraft project into an open alpha. Here’s what we know!

Open Alpha for A380X

FlyByWire, for those unfamiliar with the team, started out as a group of modders adding features to the default Asobo A320neo. The default aircraft was missing high fidelity features and they intended to bring it up to speed. While the A320 scene is now quite a full one with the freeware FlyByWire A32NX comparing well with the iniBuilds A320neo and even for some with the Fenix A320ceo. Whatever your take on the airliner field, FlyByWire have long been developing a wholly original project for their team focused on the biggest of the Airbuses.

Although it often felt like this project was too big for a freeware team to tackle, FlyByWire seems adamant at proving that kind of thinking wrong. The A380X is set to come out relatively soon with the freeware airliner emerging into open alpha. The team have made it clear that this is a project that is still developing.

To be crystal clear: the upcoming A380X “developer preview” release – will be in an open alpha stage. While some features will be operational and we can under most circumstances guarantee a decent A to B flight on VATSIM, many systems are still in active development. Features that are currently inoperative will be added over time in order to achieve our primary goal to simulate all features from the real aircraft.

They go on to say that some features will sometimes need workarounds and that if you set out to break the airplane, such as flying it into the wrong autopilot mode or trying to exceed certain control laws in the fly by wire system, you probably will succeed.

Opening up the project now also enables them to bring in more developers and they say that they are excited to open their GitHub repository to external contributors.

A strong list of features

Despite the warnings of it being an open alpha and that features are very much in the work in progress stage, it does sound like the team have managed to pull off quite a lot already too. The jet has its own custom FMS, displays such as the PFD, ND, EWD, and SD are all working. There’s electronic checklists in place, core systems such as electrical and hydraulics are all simulated, and there are over 140 failures available via their EFB. There’s also complex flight control surface and wing flex simulations at work.

Even some of the more complex features like Brake to Vacate (which lets pilots manage the braking to reach specific runway exit) and moving maps of the airport you’re at are functioning.

2024 support

FlyByWire are planning to bring the jet to 2024 as soon as they are able as well with the team reporting that they can’t guarantee it will work on day one but that they intend to bring it there when able.

Adapting the A380X for MSFS 2024 will require some significant effort due to differences in system requirements and optimizations needed for the 3D model. Although we plan to make this transition as smooth as possible, it could take a few weeks or months depending on the required changes. Importantly, since Career mode will not be supported outside the marketplace and we have no plans to join the marketplace (as outlined in our Marketplace Announcement NOTAM), this remains a hard limitation for the foreseeable future.

There are some limitations to that support as they outline there but these are understandable given the limitations of their project.

Look for it soon

As airliner developments go, FlyByWire’s A380 project looks to be a seriously impressive one. It’s almost hard to believe that its been done as a freeware as it looks, at this point, as if it will continue to develop into an impressive product in its own right rivalling or besting some payware solutions. That the airplane they are tackling is the extremely complicated A380 just adds to the wonder.

We’ll have to see how it flies when it hits open alpha but there will no doubt be a fair bit of excitement and maybe even a little disappointment in some quarters when it arrives. Nonetheless, I think a bit of flight sim history is about to be made. Keeping an eye out for the release!

Read the full FlyByWire NOTAM here!