Flight Sim Expo 2026 is happening right now and, in true FSExpo tradition, we’ve got an afternoon of product announcements coming from all across the community. Hardware, software, combat flight sims, civil flight sims, utilities, and more. Join me this afternoon and after for a rolling update of all of the latest news from across the community. Here we go!

Watching it live

It’s free to watch live on Friday so I encourage everyone to watch along as we go through a lengthy list of sim updates. Check out the updates below for live updates as they come in.

Live blog underway

Welcome address

Evan from the FSExpo team has just finished his welcome. We’ve got 17 sessions to get through this afternoon so this should be an interesting and action packed session.

Thrustmaster

Thrustmaster is first up and they are talking up their firsts in value, licensing, and more.

They say they’ve sold half a million units of the TCA units.

TCA Sky Yoke! Just announced a new push-pull, hall-effect, 3.5″ travel, 180 degree roll, 7 axes, 24 buttons, 2 triggers, trim wheel and throttle in an all in one.

$199.99 USD, Q3 2026 for PS5, Xbox and PC.

Can connect two yokes to have a co-pilot experience. You’ll be able to try it out in their booth.

Teases a quadrant that is coming. Announcement later in the show.

New officially licensed grip add-on grip for Airbus with A3XX and A400M module add-on. $199.99 USD and also coming in Q3 2026.

Parallel 42

A new add-on from Parallel 42 called sky trails. Not many details but it sounds like the idea is to make contrails better and more persistent.

SayIntentions.AI

SayIntentions is saying that they will change three things with your flight sim experience.

New hotkey from Parallel 42 with auto camera sync with SayIntentions.

New PlateBrief feature with NaviGraph lets you use voice commands to bring up the charts and automatically switch charts as needed.

It’ll let you ask questions like “What’s the go around procedure?” Neat!

Now they are touting a new backtrack feature that teleports you back in your flight so you can try your approach again.

And we’ve got more with a new SayIntentions.AI app, new immersion systems for ground ops, firefighting, search and rescue and more.

iniBuilds

We’ve got the A380 trailer that I just reported on earlier rolling right now.

Plane English: ARSimLink and Volo comms training

Coming this month, new system for communication training.

The idea is to help you learn how to communicate on the mic. Learn how to do radio communication.

AI powered ATC solution combined with ARSim to train you to communicate. Sounds like it should be a good training solution.

Entropy.Aero and Combat Pilot

Combat Pilot continues on! We’ve got a new cinematic trailer from Combat Pilot. It’s looking good!

We’ve got Carlos from the team doing the presentation.

A good overview of what most of us simmers know about Combat Pilot. Not everyone is into combat flight sims at the expo so this is good exposure.

We also have Fritz from the team. New project coordinator.

Shout out to Jason Williams from the team. Talking about his bidding farewell to the industry. Still committed to making his vision come to life.

Free demo announced with the F4F-3, map, quick mission builder, guns and ordinance. The demo is reportedly going to be the base game with Carrier Qualification built on top of that.

More content for this with the carriers and more.

First Collector Planes. Flight deck for B-17E fully modeled. Other positions to come later. A6M2-N is the series first seaplane paving way for flying boats.

More plans for the future taking shape. Midway first, Wake Island, Coral Sea, and Solomon Islands. We knew this but its a reiteration of plans from before.

The initial content is coming in Q1 2027. A slight delay. They want to add multiplayer sooner than later so multiplayer is coming somewhat sooner than planned before.

Looking forward to some in-depth on all of that soon.

Flight Control Replay

Replay system for MSFS. Looks fancier and more sophisticated than the built in option.

Cinematic mode, highlights, more.

Coming July 26 on SimMarket.

Altimeter Motives

Mixed reality offering with real world hardware and virtual instruments. Combining best of virtual and real worlds. Ability to switch between aircraft types.

Announcing a new yoke for home cockpit builders.

Designed to tackle yoke placement problem. Make it at the proper height and distance.

The company is here because they are looking for industry partners, grassroots supporters and more. They want to turn the prototype into production.

OnAir

New OnAir Airline Manager software. New 7 day free trial, new features like a quiz mode and NaviGraph support.

Bernoulli flight intelligence

Company looking to make things easier for pilots training virtually. The software is meant to train pilots offering.

Mimics real world instructors and curriculum. Follows PPL standards, CPL standards, and IFR standards. Transport Canada, FAA, EASA.

We’re on break….

15 minutes break. Taking a breather!

Navigraph

We’re back! Navigraph is the next presenter. NaviGraph is from Stockholm, Sweden. At booth 712.

They are doing a review of their year. They start with Rogers VFR Charts, announced last year, and released in the fall. Professional charts available covering US and Europe. Also has Jeppesen VFR charts covering 2,000 airports in Europe. They’ve also added FAA helicopter sectionals, Navigraph academy, and scratchpads.

New features coming up!

New features include realistic intercontinental flight planning, Weekly updates for Jeppesen charts, VFR charts for new regions (Brazil, Southeast Asia, Middle East) and avionics integration for Epic avionics.

The new intercontinental tracks system looks pretty cool with the ability to select your own tracks, use real world data and routing information, auto routing, and there’s a great visualization.

New Brazil VFR charts have a lot of detail including terrain information. These charts cover all of Brazil. Also South East Asia and parts of the Middle East as well.

GlassOut

New app called GlassOut now in public beta lets you pop out displays and put them on other displays.

VirtualFly

The folks at VirtualFly are celebrating 15 years. They are currently developing new products and releases and they are showing them off today. They are a hardware builder for certified simulators.

New modular cockpit solution.

Switcho EFIS panel or G1000 panel replica.

Products are already available to buy and can be tested at their booth.

New Force Feedback Yoke. Yoko Force Neo. Developed to be as realistic as possible. 165 newtons of force. Active dual linkage with software link to make both controls work at the same time.

The company also has professional flight simulators. Remember, FSExpo is more than just an entertainment venue and here’s where we get into some really pro level gear that schools are looking to use.

Cockpit Simulator 737 throttle quadrant

Looks like another high end solution with a 737 throttle quadrant with moving trim wheel. Looks impressive!

Sporty’s IFR

We’ve got another trailer with a training solution Sporty’s IFR training kit.

Laminar Research and X-Plane

We’ve got a fairly significant presentation expected for Laminar Research. X-Plane 12 has 9 version releases, 5500 code commits, X-Plane 12 is the most successful version release so far (they say).

We’ve got a summary of what they’ve been doing. Gateway Asset Update, Weather Update, C-Check, and the VR release.

Now we’re talking roadmap! Three key goals: empower pilots, empower developers, empower the future.

Coming up are the new few updates.

The SDK update are focused on some interesting new features. Adding Farnborough Airport coming in 12.4.4.

A flight model update is coming. Helicopter updates, ground updates, and a new custom airport scenery with John F. Kennedy.

Panel Graphics is the next subject. Right now they are using OpenGL bridge, 2002 tech, lower performance, etc. New API coming for panel graphics natively in Vulkan. Also a new feature for doing your own UI with ImGUI, CEF (Chromium). Works with LUA or C++. SDK update coming this summer.

We’re talking work in progress stuff next with disclaimer. Next gen scenery! (FINALLY!)

Current system is old tech, from 2004, with tile systems. New tile engine coming with the update with more scaling and streaming support.

Using the Grand Canyon as an example of how they are doing things with more details closer up and fewer details in the distance. Less pre-baked. Ability to do fine detail up front.

Another example in the Pacific NorthWest. Something about DSF (I don’t know what that is) but they want it to work with older stuff. But you’ll still be able to edit meshes and fix coastlines and do details.

Apparently this update will come out this year. They want this in developers hands so they can build out next generation scenery.

It sounds like we won’t get this all at once but with features that ship out a bit at a time. Still very interesting!

Cabby AI

Software lets you chat with your cabin crew, create scenarios, passenger simulation, etc.

Price reduced from $29 to $22.

FliteSim.com

Back again this year with hardware. Prices to be confirmed but they are talking about a smaller form factor for their yoke system. Prices are going to be “affordable.” CLS-60 FFB normal price is $999 but reduced to $699 for end of life sale.

Also coming out with a full size 737 yoke.

Normal price $599 with pre-launch $399 price.

Also doing a Cessna 172 Analog Panel.

Priced at $1,099 USD but $750 for pre-launch.

All of the orders are run through their website. Company also partnering with Pilot Lounge in California.

NextLevelRacing

Missed the trailer from NextLevelRacing but it looked like some cool setups for Airbus.

JetCard

15,000 charter board to setup and book flights focused on business aviation. Generates briefings, clients, uses real world data, creates a narrative and a briefing.

Software lets you do freelance, join a player owned operator, or be an operator. Living ecosystem, live event charters (think sport teams and events), lots of interactivity. Interesting.

Pimax

We’re up now with a trailer from Pimax. Some footage from IL-2 Korea which is cool and MSFS as well.

Grinnelli Designs

We’ve got Joe Grinnelli up on the stage for a presentation about the DCS: F-100D.

DCS: F-100D is their first module (as we know). Years of research and passion to bring it to life.

Joe is talking about the Combat Arena at booth 517.

Announced today that the module is live right now. There you have it!

We’ve got the release trailer playing right now. EDIT: Here it is!

TurtleBeach

A bit of an add for Turtle Beach’s Velocity One HOTAS.

VA Systems

The company has a bunch of apps that they’ve built into the Panel. A software that sits inside MSFS. Includes checklists, flows, flight schedules (so you can do the route yourself), live ops, aircraft based routes, etc.

Stratoware

We’ve got a trailer for the Miltech Simulations/Stratoware Bo 105 helicopter. It’s getting a lot of praise these days so I may have to check it out at some point. The trailer is pretty slick showing off the helicopter.

Moza

We’ve got a showcase coming from Moza. The showcase is talking about a mix of hardware for civil and military as part of something they call Moza Cockpit.

New MA3F is an Airbus style experience. Includes the push/pull workflow. Coming Q3 2026.

New MB7F FCD and MA3F FCD which are Airbus and Boeing style FMC/MCDU style interfaces. MGX1000 instrument panel for G1000 style experience. FMP18 is an F/A-18 style display (I like it!).

Most of these have a Q3 2026 arrival date.

Moza’s presenter says they want to offer hardware for the entire ecosystem. Company is moving quickly here to engage with large parts of the market.

Break time

We’re on another 15 minute break. Back shortly!

SoFly

AeroTone

is offering 80+ new sound effects with 3D spacial awareness for cabin and cockpit sounds. Dynamic rain sound effects, ground staff, cabin crew chatter, etc.

All of this coming in the next major update for AeroTone for both consoles and PC users. Coming later this summer.

Also announcing Cabin Announcement Pro. Includes boarding music, cabin messages, safety announcements, in flight service messages and so forth. This is slated to come by end of the year.

End of presentation includes a new SoFly presentation on Budapest Airport.

Beam EyeTracker

Tobii might have a competitor with Beam EyeTracker using regular RGB web cameras. Official UI support is coming in SU6 for MSFS 2024.

Meridian GMT

We’ve got Meridian back to do another presentation this year. Horizon and Latitude Plus hardware platform. We’ve got a Horizon yoke and avionics panel with throttle quadrant is on display on the show floor.

There’s also a pro model, the Latitude, with an an airliner focused setup.

Horizon plus is going to start shipping on October 28 and the Latitude is coming December 28. There is a limited pre-order. No pricing was mentioned.

They’ve got an announcement of a new Partnership with PowerA. It’s a controller based system with swappable components. Meant for aircraft and helicopters.

We’ve also got a new rudder pedal setup coming in 2027. Its 50% quieter, 25% smaller but still meant to give a real feel of aircraft flying.

EFBX

A new trailer is up and we’ve got EFBX. A custom EFB with support for smartphones and tablets with its own app eco system.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

We’re getting closer to the end now because its Microsoft Flight Simulator time!

Jorg reporting in. Sim Update 5 is the most stable the sim has ever been. Second highest monthly active users since MSFS launched. “Hobby is growing which is good for all of us,” says Jorg.

We’re getting into some details about the national parks update. 31 national parks and monuments with 15-30cm resolution. Just like the Grand Canyon but in more places. It’s possible because of Vexcel which gives us the details. First time with water masks from Bing – pixel perfect says Jorg!

Gaya made 46 points of interest. Visitor centres, hotels, and objects. Hand crafted some arches and shapes in Monument Valley. Neat!

KJAC – Jackson Hole International.

Adding something new! Guided tours through some of the park areas.

New base game aircraft with the Goodyear Blimp (made by iniBuilds). It’s free!

National Championship Air Racing. This fall launching the air races with the 4 classes from before. New things, with a new base experience that is free. New Rosewell location. New STOL drag race 5th class. More authentic with engine stress management. There are now 44 aircraft updated with flight model, wear and tear, light art updates based on the old Reno Air Race pack.

New City Update 15 coming in with a much better and bigger Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis and other areas. Nice trailer playing. The update is available now!