Something interesting was said in the last MSFS developer Q&A. Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, said that they had signed a partnership with aircraft maker Embraer. That had me thinking what aircraft they could do, especially in the short term and one airplane started to make a lot of sense to me. Of course, nothing is confirmed, so this article is some good old fashioned speculation. I’m speculating that they are going to reveal an EMB 120 as an upcoming update. Here’s why I think that.

EMB 120?

First, why am I guessing that this the airplane that we might get. A couple of reasons. Embraer doesn’t have a lengthy list of aircraft like some manufacturers so making a guess is a bit of an easier process. From there we can start to eliminate other options.

Doing an E-Jets airliner would be a more complex project and Flight Sim Studio already has a decent set (once they are able to deliver some of the key remaining features). There’s also an EMB-110 Bandeirante created by Next Gen Simulations out there. Nobody has done an ERJ series yet but that would be nearly as complicated as doing the E-Jets. So that leaves us with the KC-390, their business jet line of which several have already been made or are being created for the sim, and the EMB-120. Who ends up making it may be the other clue for this puzzle.

Who might make the EMB 120?

There’s two developers that might be able to tackle this project. The first is iniBuilds who have become one of Microsoft go-to developers for aircraft large and small, simple and complex. Most of them have been competent to great releases and they seem like a good possibility. But I don’t think it will be them.

The most likely choice is another go-to developer… Carenado. Why is that? Turns out that they sold one of these for FSX and P3D back in the day. While its clearly aged now, the visuals for it are actually not too bad given the lengthy history and a redo would surely bring it up to modern standards.

The company has made a lengthy list of aircraft for the sim and most recently have contributed everything from simpler GA options to the very similar Saab 340. Avionics complexity would be similar to the 340 as well so that just adds to the likelihood of this.

Sounds like a fun option

The EMB 120 is a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW118 powered aircraft with typical seating capacity for 30 passengers. Cruise speed around 300 knots, a 940 nautical mile range, and a 32,000 foot ceiling. Most of the EMB 120s sold went to the US with SkyWest operating a large fleet until 2015 and remains in service with Ameriflight as a freighter. Its flown in Australia, Africa, and Europe and in Brazil in military service as a transport aircraft. A versatile little aircraft and one with modern context. Sounds like fun!

I think some of the most fun you can have flying airliners in MSFS are with short range regional turboprops. The sim doesn’t have very many of them but it does have a few. One of the most visible ones is the ATR and another is the recently added Saab 340B. Adding more wouldn’t hurt!

Will it actually happen? I have no inside information but long term readers know that I’ve occasionally made some good guesses. I’m curious to see how quickly this partnership bears fruit.

It’s also worth mentioning that while I expect Microsoft to press forward with new content releases fairly soon after launch, nobody would dispute that MSFS 2024 continues to have some serious core issues. Hopefully we’ll see some of those core problems tackled soon so we can start thinking about and being excited by new content. Still, I think this is something that could be months on down the road if this happens at all.

I could also be completely wrong!