AD Simulations has recently released its latest product following its announcement over 3 years ago, the highly anticipated CRJ-700 for X-Plane. Shipping with a wide array of features, the aircraft offers to provide its users with a highly immersive rendition of one of the most popular regional jets ever built. Originally a project established within SSG of 747-8 and E-Jets fame, the CRJ fell out of favor with the team which prompted a team member, Andrzej Borysewicz (who’s no longer part of SSG) to continue his portion of the CRJ work as a separate project. This branch off has culminated into the CRJ release today.

The Bombardier CRJ series requires little introduction, its a very well covered aircraft in the flight simulation space; users have the Digital Designs and Aerosoft’s CRJ simulation for Prepar3D, and Aerosoft’s in-house CRJ development has produced an in-depth result that garnered widespread praise. A range of aircraft originally manufactured by Bombardier (now acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), it is designed for short, regional flights; the CRJ family of aircraft includes various models such as the CRJ-100/200, 700, 900 and 1000. The CRJ-700 first took to the skies in May 1999, marking the beginning of a highly successful period for Bombardier, with an order for 500 CRJ aircraft by Delta Airlines. 

The CRJ-700 saw a substantial improvement in the form of the CRJ-700 NextGen, which improved the aircrafts economics and came with a highly improved, modernized cabin.

Shortly before the release, a few days ago AD Simulations announced that they’ve partnered up with “Delta Wing Simulations” to further develop the aircraft, with their role taking on the system side of the work. The feature list suggests a largely vanilla aircraft, though the team makes the best use out of the tools they have available; there’s custom sounds utilising FMOD like any other aircraft out there, but what’s arguably the centrepiece of the add-on is the modelling, where the team put special attention to cover all bases in detail, leaving little to be desired on the modelling side of things. The aircraft additionally features a highly realistic flight model that faithfully replicates the behavioural characteristics of the aircraft. On top of all that, the product page advertises a true to life systems modelling which are based on a real CRJ-700 aircraft, its functionality validated by 5 CRJ real life pilots, the comprehensiveness stopped short of a fully custom FMS however, though the panel and it's Pop Up is visually altered and uses the default Collins FMS-4200 simulation, the same model used by the CRJ series.

With the same asking price as the Aerosoft CRJ series for MSFS, this will be an interesting addition to the list of CRJ simulations in flight simulation. The AD Simulations’ CRJ-700 can be purchased for $49.95 on the X-Plane.org Store.