I really feel for developers who are looking to get their project to the finish line and out into the community only to be beset by various challenges that make the job harder. This has certainly been the case for BlueBird Simulations whose long in development Boeing 757-200 for Microsoft Flight Simulator has hit another snag right as the aircraft was meant to release. Here’s what we know about their situation right now.

Planned for release but not just yet

BlueBird Simulations has been on the scene for a few years now, building their 757 release from a relatively basic project in the early days to a full fidelity project challenging the best in the industry as things progressed. The hype behind the project in the community has reached a fevered pitch and excitement for the launch has been high – probably too high.

We’ve seen some great previews from those granted access to pre-release versions and that has only helped to increase the excitement.

The intent from BlueBird Simulations was to launch the aircraft yesterday. That was the date that they locked in on and had planned for. Unfortunately, as with all best laid plans, sometimes things don’t go according to plan and by later in the evening North America time it was clear that the project was not going to come out as planned.

Hey everyone, we want to give you an honest update on where we are with everything. One of our developers was admitted to urgent care today. They’re the person directly responsible for our deployment infrastructure and backend, so this has hit our timeline harder than most setbacks would. Their health comes first, and the rest of the team is stepping in where we can. Where we are right now:

• We’re still pushing for the timeframe laid out in #faq.
• We don’t have a confirmed delay, and we didn’t want to announce one before we knew for sure hence the radio silence.
• A delay is a real possibility, though, and based off community reactions and feedback we’d rather tell you that now than surprise you later.

What happens next: If the release does slip, we’ll post a follow-up here with the new plan and next steps. Thank you to everyone who has been patient with us. We’re working extremely hard to get this plane out as soon as we can, and we really appreciate your support.

My heart goes out to the team, their developer and that developer’s family who must be quite concerned for their health. Nothing matters more than health, so, I really hope they are doing ok and recovering well.

That message was followed later by another update confirming that they would not be able to release as they planned.

Unfortunately we will just miss our release window. All relevant developers are actively working on getting this to everyone within the next several hours, the next update you will receive from us will be the release.

So, no, BlueBird’s 757 is not likely to come out just yet but its almost certainly coming out in the near future. Be that today, tomorrow, the next day or sometime next week. After four years, we can wait! Like many projects that I’ve covered over the years, ultimately the delays and the challenges will recede into the past and we’ll focus on the product itself.