By Javier Rollon · 2026-04-08
Spring 2026 might be the most exciting three months in flight simulation history. Both major platforms shipped milestone updates, the community gathered in the Netherlands for FSWeekend, iniBuilds dropped a TriStar, DC Designs confirmed Concorde for MSFS 2024, and humans are going back to the Moon. I'm trying to process all of this while still meeting my own development deadlines. It's a lot.
FSWeekend in Lelystad, Netherlands happened in late March, and the announcements were substantial. Microsoft brought MSFS 2024 running on PS5 Pro with PSVR2 — attendees were the first outside the development team to fly in PlayStation VR. From the reports I've read, the immersion is remarkable. The sense of scale flying a helicopter next to a mountain in VR is apparently unlike anything on a flat screen.
Jorg Neumann confirmed PSVR2 support ships with Sim Update 5 in April as a free update. All 125 default aircraft work in VR. That's flight simulation going from niche desktop hobby to living room entertainment system. Whether that's good or bad for the hardcore community is debatable, but the accessibility is undeniable.
iniBuilds released the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar for MSFS 2024. A trijet in 2026. I love this industry. The TriStar is one of those aircraft that aviation enthusiasts romanticize — the three-engine competitor to the DC-10 that lost the commercial battle but won hearts. Seeing it rendered with modern fidelity in MSFS 2024 is a reminder that flight simulation isn't just about current operations. It's about preserving aviation history.
DC Designs also confirmed Concorde flying natively in MSFS 2024, with release expected in April. Supersonic flight in a platform with global photogrammetry — flying London to New York at Mach 2 with accurate scenery below — is going to be something special. And PMDG announced their "High Detail Update" starting with the 737-700, which likely means the 777 update isn't far behind.
Aircraft and Avionics Update 4 is coming alongside Sim Update 5, bringing several European aircraft up to MSFS 2024 native standards plus the new Avidyne IFD 540/550 avionics. The Fokker F27 Friendship — Local Legend 23 — launched at FSWeekend, built by iniBuilds. A Dutch turboprop announced at a Dutch aviation event. Perfect timing.
While MSFS made headlines at FSWeekend, Laminar shipped two updates that matter more to developers than to headline writers. The 12.4.0 C-Check brought multi-threaded scenery processing — X-Plane finally using all your CPU cores — and 12.4.1 followed with the A330 Ram Air Turbine, improved TCAS, weather radar on the X1000, and CPU performance optimizations.
The roadmap reveals 12.4.3 will be a complete VR rewrite. Laminar knows MSFS is coming hard with PSVR2, and X-Plane's current VR implementation needs work. The physics advantage X-Plane holds means nothing if the VR experience doesn't do it justice. When I fly my SF-260 in VR during aerobatics, the blade-element-theory flight model creates sensations that table-based physics simply can't match. But the rendering has to keep up, and right now, it doesn't always.
NASA launched Artemis II on April 1st. Humans going back to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The MSFS community responded immediately — fly-in events over Kennedy Space Center, TerraBuilder's KSC scenery getting downloaded by the thousands, people flying the Space Shuttle approach path in tribute.
This is what connects simulation to reality. The same trajectory math that puts a spacecraft on a lunar transfer orbit is the same math that puts my CRJ-200 on a glidepath at 3 degrees. Different scale, same physics. When real aviation makes headlines, simulators become the way ordinary people connect with extraordinary achievements. That's a responsibility I take seriously as a developer.
Both platforms are healthier than they've ever been. MSFS 2024 has the visuals, the marketplace, the mainstream reach, and now console VR. X-Plane 12 has the physics, the multi-threading foundation for future performance gains, and a developer ecosystem that keeps pushing system depth.
For third-party developers, we're living in a golden age. The tools are better. The customer base is larger. The platforms are competing on features that matter. And real-world aviation — from Artemis missions to AI dogfights — keeps generating stories that make our simulations feel relevant beyond entertainment.
I'm going back to my cockpit models now. There's work to do, and the bar keeps rising. That's exactly how it should be.
Javier Rollon develops aircraft for JRollon Planes. Follow on Twitter.