Jason Williams and the rest of the Combat Pilot team are back from FSExpo and we’ve got a new status update video from the Combat Pilot team going over how things went at the expo, talking about some of the progress that the team has made with Combat Pilot, and laying out some plans for the future. Let’s have a look!

A recap of the expo

It’s been a few months since the last significant update from the Combat Pilot team but rest assured that they have been busy. For those new to the genre, Combat Pilot is a WWII Pacific theatre focused combat flight sim in development. It’s the first entirely new combat flight sim in decades and its being lead by combat flight sim veteran Jason Williams and developed by Entropy.Aero. Jason and the rest of the team behind the project have been very open about their development process and have been sharing with us development information from the early days of the project.

The team was at FSExpo 2025 this year in Providence, Rhode Island and they were able to share with attendees one of the most recent builds of the sim. Long time readers will note from the video that things have clearly progressed from some of the previews from last year – the F4F and A6M have detailed cockpit models, the UI has been updated, the scenery for Midway island has progressed and it looks like even the lighting has been improving.

Jason also revealed that they were able to get VR up and running during the last day of the show and. although it has bugs, its a clear statement on the desire for Combat Pilot to have VR as a feature.

Not as visible is the behind the scenes work. Jason reports that this year they were able to debut their Entropy FM physics engine which is now allowing these aircraft to take flight with their own bespoke flight model.

Looking forward

The video also gives us a sense of where the project is heading next. Jason reports that progress is being made on multiple fronts including everything from adding aircraft to overcoming hurdles with historical research. The video shows off work in progress A6M2-N “Rufe” floatplane variant of the Zero fighter, the D3A “Val,” Hiryu aircraft carrier, a USMC 37mm anti-aircraft gun, B-17E, B-25D, and B-24J. Lots to be excited about there!

In his next steps section, Jason mentioned that they are working towards providing Ace-tier Patreon supporters with a new build. They are working through showstopper bugs right now and plan to share the update with us before the end of August. I’ve previously written on what the pre-alpha test is like and I look forward to comparing that with their latest when it becomes available.

Further afield, Jason reports that they are aiming to release Combat Pilot: Carrier Qualification during the first half of 2026. This will be the first official release of Combat Pilot and will help lay groundwork for the development of the rest of the sim.

A new developer diary is due out soon but in the meantime check out the video and visit the Combat Pilot website to learn more about the project.