MicroProse have thrown their hat into the ring of Microsoft Flight Simulator aircraft development with a series that they are calling the Heritage Valor Collection. Their first aircraft, almost by default, had to be the Boeing B-17 and that’s exactly what has been delivered. The early access version of B-17G for MSFS is available and I’ve just had my first flight with it. Here are some early impressions while sharing my inaugural flight. Let’s fly the fort!

Early access B-17G

MicroProse have laid out a roadmap for how the release of the B-17G is going to go. We’re at the initial release stage right now with basics systems, flight model, crew, animations and a prototype of the clipboard system to control the aircraft.

Having flown the aircraft, you’re going to see that there’s a lot of this product that is looking really impressive and then other pieces that are clearly a placeholder for what’s yet to come. Until we hit that final release status, I’ll be withholding a full review but at the same time I will point out what I’m seeing as the flight goes on. MicroProse are selling this aircraft through the Just Flight store right now so it is a product you can buy right now. Let’s see it in action!

The familiar route for warbird testing: Duxford to London and back

I’ve gotten into a bit of a rut but it’s a glorious one as it almost never disappoints. The freeware EGSU Duxford Airfield is a recreation of the famous warbird museum located at Duxford to the north of London. It’s a beautiful scenery pack and if you have any warbirds at all in Microsoft Flight Simuator, I highly recommend you add it to your scenery collection as it provides a great base to fly from.

With appropriately moody autumn weather of mixed sun and clouds, rain showers and crisp air I loaded up the B-17G for the first time. My route for today is a replication of one that I flew just a few months ago with the Just Flight Vulcan.

Now let’s have a look at the interior. You’ll all remember from the roadmap that texture improvements are listed several times and I think you’ll begin to see why. The cockpit is really superb with crisp details on the instruments and on the front panel. There are a few areas where some of the textures get a little blurry but mostly they are really solid. As we go back through the aircraft, however, you’ll see a fair bit of work in progress at the radio station, in the bomb bay, the gunners positions and more. There is also, thinking glass half full here, quite a bit that is already detailed and those parts are really good.

Anxious to get flying, I’ll admit that after a brief survey of the aircraft I hit the Cntrl+E button to get the aircraft started and start it did. Lots of smoke and rumbling engines and then we had a ready to fly B-17. A quick and easy way to get going if you want to take that method. Next time out I’ll be doing the slower method.

Once powered up, it was time to taxi. The B-17 is a relatively large aircraft and its a tail dragger. MSFS in the past has not been great at taildragger physics, however, this works reasonably well. A bit of differential thrust on the left or right outboard engine helps swing the aircraft around but its not overly twitchy and a fair bit of throttle is required to get it going and keep it going through a turn. There is a tailwheel lock/unlock system, however, I struggled to get a good feel for it so far. The flight model (and the ground interaction presumably) is still work in progress so maybe there’s a bit to do there.

After lining up on the runway, I advanced the throttles and started to accelerate down the runway. The B-17, when not fully loaded down for a WWII-era bomber mission, is actually quite good at getting up and off the ground and that’s true here too. Airshow examples can really get going in a very short time. The four engines and the big wing help!

For the next few minutes I started to get a feel for the aircraft. Roll control is, as you’d expect, fairly sluggish and its sluggish in a satisfying way. The flight model, work in progress as it may be, already feels pretty good. The nose wanders a bit and rudder coordination helps keep things under control. That gives it some liveliness that not every MSFS aircraft has. I know they have more to do here but I am quite happy with that part of the experience. Climbs, dives, and even stalls happen slowly and predictably.

To London and back!

After messing around in the immediate Duxford area, I climbed a little and headed south towards London. I stayed mostly VFR on this flight staying out of the thick clouds and under the cloud deck. Rain storms to the west and the general autumn skies really helped set a fantastic mood as I cruised towards London. I haven’t discovered the autopilot system just yet but trimming the B-17 out leads to relatively stable flight.

Emerging from a lower cloud deck near the eastern side of London we cruised over London City airport, Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace before turning northwards.

Framerates were a surprisingly steady 80fps on my system. Reassuring as some add-ons I’ve been trying to fly recently have been giving me varying framerates in the current Sim Update. I hear the beta has improved performance quite a bit so I’m looking forward to that coming out of beta and into general release. In any case, the B-17 doesn’t need it and seems to run smoothly overall.

On my trek northward I deviated a little and was spending a bit more time nose down into the cockpit. There are some inoperative systems right now and the navigation radio, managed by the navigator at the back, doesn’t have any functionality for the moment. Hopefully that’ll be one of the systems that you can make use of later.

Landing back at Duxford

The real challenge in every flight is the landing and I was curious to see how the B-17 handled that. With a slightly wandering nose and a bit of character already present with the aircraft I was also facing a slight crosswind (5 knots across the field). The suggested landing runway was Runway 06, however, there was little difference with the crosswind at a 90 degree angle. I setup a slight crab and brought the aircraft in with a fair bit of correcting needing to be done to keep the wings level and the aircraft on track.

Touchdown came smoothly and quietly. One of my better landings actually! I taxied the aircraft back into position and powered down. A successful first flight!

First impressions

There’s an awful lot to like about MicroProse’s Heritage Valor Collection B-17. For one, it captures the look and feel of this legendary aircraft well.

The exterior model is really impressive with lots of details and sharp textures and the flight model, work in progress as it may be, already provides a fair bit of character to the aircraft. Hard over on the stick and the aircraft will very gently begin to roll. It’s what you expect from a large winged aircraft of this era with unpowered ailerons. It feels right! The animation work is smooth, the cockpit generally looks great, and the rest of the aircraft is modeled and present for you to go and explore.

It does feel a little early in the early access period to really dig into this aircraft. I’d like to see the navigation system up and running (maybe it is and I’m missing something) and there’s a fair bit of work in progress texture work still to be done. The sounds are generally good too but there are some quirks when doing rapid throttle changes and when in the drone camera where the audio level drops off to silent too quickly.

A series of updates, as presented at the top of the article, are planned and I think that should take this from its current state to finished. The final MSRP of $39.99 USD commands a bit of a premium space these days (a lot of simpler aircraft are selling for half) and while the B-17 is not simple, it does need to make sure if justifies that price when its done. For now there is a 17% discount (I see what they did there! ;)).

In this specific case, I know a number of the developers including the project lead, Sergio (also from HeliSimmer.com), whom I did a short Q&A with back when the project was announced. There’s some great talent here and I think they will pull together the project nicely over time. Rough edges aside, it was really fun to fly the B-17 in early access and I’m going to be keeping a close eye on this project as it matures.

If you like supporting projects like this one and don’t mind a few rough edges, you can fly the MicroProse Heritage Valor Collection B-17 for Microsoft Flight Simulator today when purchased from the Just Flight webstore. If you prefer a finished product and want to wait and see how this comes together, I think there’s probably enough still in development that you’ll want to wait it out until that comes. When it does, I will be writing up the full review so you know what to expect when we get there. Stay tuned for that!