Let’s get it out of the way right away: Fall 2022. That is when helicopters are planned to be released in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Microsoft and Asobo have shown a roadmap that covers the entire year of 2022, and they have a few ‘surprises’ in the mix. But, what’s more important, there’s a new approximate date for the release of helicopters.
Asobo, through its CEO, Sebastian Wloch, also talked about the new propeller system that has been developed which improves fixed-wing aircraft but also serves as a base for helicopters.
One of the things I was concerned about as Sebastian mentioned that new technology in the past was the fact that rotors are not propellers. Nonetheless, the fact that he has mentioned some of the differences between rotors and propellers (namely the fact that propeller blades are much prone to external factors – notice blade bending is mentioned, for example) somewhat made me less worried.
In the stream, Asobo shows a small clip with the current eVTOL and the wind flow around it, the vortices, and you can even see how ground effect acts upon a body in the sim. Of course, an eVTOL is not a helicopter, but the important here is what is behind it, which is the wind flow and how air moves around the aircraft.
And that is looking pretty impressive.
I am getting very excited about seeing these videos and the progress being done.
You can watch the full VOD for the Microsoft Flight Simulator Dev Q&A here.
