Development on the iFly 737 MAX series has continued after its release in the autumn of last year. The developers have just provided the community with some new details on what they plan to offer in what they call Service Pack 1 (SP1) for the product. They are also talking about their plans for the future. Let’s have a look!

Service pack for 737 MAX

The iFly MAX has earned quite a strong following in flight sim circles which will likely only continue to attract attention thanks to an incoming service pack that will add features and resolve bugs.

One of the headliner new features is a tablet style EFB. They are also planning support for CPDLC via Hoppie API (for VASTIM and IVAO users and potentially BeyondATC and SayIntentions in the future too). Multiple cabin layouts (with 166, 178, 189, and 197 seats), updated cabin materials and details, cabin voice announcements and the addition of the MAX8-200 with additional emergency exits are also coming.

The updates planned are currently in development though they have not yet entered into beta testing so don’t expect these updates to arrive immediately.

iFly are also reporting that SP1 will be the last significant update for the 737MAX product for MSFS 2020. Here’s a little of what they had to say:

SP1 will be the last product development with support for MSFS 2020. The structural differences between MSFS 2020 and 2024 are too vast and extremely time and labor consuming to develop for both. Therefore, the decision has been made to only continue with MSFS 2024 development once SP1 has been released (this does not mean that there might not be small patch updates for the current MAX8 product version after SP1).

iFly join other developers such as PMDG who have also stated that their efforts going forward will be directed at the newer sim.

Future plans

Exciting news for folks looking forward to new products is word that the team are currently planning development of the MAX 9 variant and are considering development on both the MAX 7 and MAX 10 variants though they say that this is subject to the real world aircraft’s certification and placement into service. On that note, Boeing is still struggling to solve some anti-ice problems on both variants and certification has been pushed in 2026.

Meanwhile, iFly say they are focused on delivering SP1 for 2020 and 2024 in the near term and will switch to 2024 focus and on delivering additional variants of the 737 MAX after that.

Read the full update from the Flight1 Discord.

Learn more about the iFly MAX 8 here on the company website.