Two pieces of reporting on Microsoft Flight Simulator coming in with the June 12th Development Update released yesterday. First, there’s a very interesting Heart Aerospace Partnership Series video that was released. Second, I wanted to take a look a the latest Development Update to see what progress is being made on Sim Update 3 and what items are listed as being in development. Let’s have a look at both!

New Partnership Series video

It’s been a while since we saw one of these videos but we have a new one and its focused on Heart Aerospace. This Gothenburg, Sweden aerospace manufacturer is busy certifying a hybrid electric airliner that pairs two conventional turboprop engines with two electric ones and a rather large battery in the back. They aren’t the only company in the industry working on this with De Havilland Canada and ATR both working on hybridized turboprops. Heart is more of a start-up by comparison… but new technology and new ideas sometimes can mix up the industry. I’m all for checking out new experimental types from time to time!

The aircraft is not yet certified but it is available in MSFS 2024. I suspect the video was intended to be released last year but with the challenges involved in the sim’s launch, they likely held off until now to share the video. As it is, the ES-30 in MSFS 2024 has quite a few issues – issues with the throttles not working for some players, issues with the electrical systems, etc. Hopefully the partnership video, though mostly a marketing exercise, also maybe indicates an effort to fix this and other aircraft and get them ship shape!

Some of the items in development for SU3

Sim Update 2 went a good way towards making MSFS 2024 a more functional sim experience but the work continues and all eyes are looking forward to Sim Update 3.

On the top of the list? FPS and VRAM performance issues which are listed as being in progress for Sim Update 3. So too are the blurry ground textures, LOD system issues, EFB problems in VR, PC-12’s persistent pressurization/oxygen system, external lights not being visible in some lighting conditions, and AI traffic contrails among others.

The latest Development Update gives us a snapshot of where thing are at right now. We also know from various beta updates that bugs with aircraft and features are being worked on as well with four successive beta releases.

It’s good to see the progress moving along.