Just over a week ago, PMDG’s Robert S. Randazzo was on the PMDG forums offering up an overview on where many of their projects are at right now. That includes talk about 2024 compatibility and how some new releases are progressing. One of the exciting ones is the 747 which appears to be progressing swiftly. Let’s have a look at some highlights.

Multiple airliner projects being refined and updated

PMDG has quite a bit going on right now and one of the biggest questions hanging over them right now is compatibility with MSFS 2024. While Fenix and iniBuilds have managed to move their airliners over to 2024, in unsupported but functional tests for now, PMDG are currently holding back with Robert reporting that they have some “full-stop blockers” preventing them from rolling out products into the new sim. He goes on to say that the blockers have been reported to Asobo and are apparently resolved internally but aren’t yet in the patch notes for Sim Update 1 beta.

Meanwhile, the 737 series has seen a variety of small updates in v3.00.0112 now available as of January 23rd. There are tweaks to the auto throttle, LNAV, a fix to the 737-900’s compass being frozen, and more. Critically, they say they’ve either reduced or eliminated the bug that causes the tablet to become unresponsive.

The 737NG series are going to see more significant updates coming after the 777 moves over to 2024. Those include model updates, new sounds and new sound engine, and other refinements. The 737MAX project remains on hold while their team works on some professional projects.

Over on the 777 front, there appears to be quite a bit of activity. The 200ER is about to enter into beta testing with initial release to hit 2020 first and then 2024 compatibility in a free update. The 777-200LR is planned to follow after.

Multiple 747 variants underway

The status report switches over to some interesting new details on the 747 project as well as offering up a couple of screenshots. The teams are reportedly working on the 747-100 and -400 concurrently and there is a bit of a race on to see which version makes it to release status first.

The 747-100 flight engineer station is being shown off in a work in progress state (sans the usual wear and tear applications which will come later).

The 747 variants will have automated co-pilot and flight engineer systems to help make the process a bit easier to get into. Or you’ll be able to operate it all yourself if you wish to.

While many simmers are comfortable with a highly automated airplane that doesn’t require much operational knowledge to fly reasonably, seeing all of these dials might seem daunting, so we have begun to map out a behavior process for your virtual crew members. The virtual copilot and virtual flight engineer will help manage this magnificent machine in such a way that you, as captain, can focus on the stick, rudder and throttles while the professionals around you will ensure that the airplane runs and flies in such a way that you can focus on the fun stuff, or dive deep into the sim detail- depending upon your own interest level.

PMDG’s Robert S. Randazzo

It’s unclear even within PMDG which 747 version will arrive first but both variants appear well underway.

Looking forward to hearing some more updates on PMDG’s move towards 2024 support on several of their mainline products.

Read the full update here!