The veteran development team at BlackBox Simulations has released its Shorts Regional pack for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The pack includes passenger, military, and cargo variants of the Shorts 330 and 360 airframes. You may recognise BlackBox from their other MSFS projects, which include the Britten Norman BN2 Islander and BN2A Mk.III Trislander. 

The Short SD3-30 (and subsequently the larger SD3-60) is a small twin turboprop airliner that first entered service with Time Air in 1976. The SD3-30 had a capacity of 39 passengers and a range of over 900 nautical miles. The main goal of the 330 was to compete with similarly classed twin turboprop airliners such as the DeHaviland DHC-6 Twin Otter and Beechcraft Model 99. The larger SD3-60 had a maximum capacity of 36 passengers with a shorter range of 850 nautical miles. 

The team at BlackBox has poured many months of development time into the Regional pack, which included a large amount of feedback from real-world pilots and other crew members who had worked with the 330 and 360. When asked how valuable this input was, BlackBox CEO Graham Waterfield said it was "absolutely priceless. Yes of course we had access to extensive Manuals and Maintenance Documents but there is Nothing like dropping a message to an active pilot and getting "the answer" straight back…  Of note is the awesome assistance received from all the guys at the Shorts 330/360 Facebook Group."

The Shorts Regional pack is available from  BlackBox's website for €49.99 and is expected to be released on the MSFS Marketplace shortly. The pack comes with nine variants of the aircraft: passenger and cargo versions of both the 330 and 360, as well as 5 military variants. Users can expect to enjoy a study-level avionics suite, custom animations, accurate turboprop simulation, and the inclusion of 36 real-world liveries. 

As always, be sure to stay tuned to Threshold for all your flight simulation news! 

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