Ilias Tselios and the team at ITX-Design have quietly been working away at a new update to their Piaggio P.180 Avanti II, a top-quality freeware aircraft that was first released back in 2017.

Since our previous article about the aircraft, which was released in July 2019, the aircraft has come a long way, with teasers in increasing frequency posted on Tselios' Facebook group for the aircraft, we're not short of hints this update was coming.

The developer has kindly provided Threshold with the changelog for version 2.3.0, in addition to a few exclusive screenshots of the new update in action.

• Experimental flight model compatible.
• Flight model fixes allow to fly now up to M.68
• Added Librain support.
• Added Terrain Radar support and simulated operation.
• Added Tablet with load and settings menu, and Avitab support.
• Various fixes, manipulators and textures improvements.

Looking to the future, the developer plans to add more functionality to the Avanti's avionics, which is based on the Proline 21 system, saying it will become a real 'simulation' of the systems versus an 'emulation' in its current state.

A custom FMC and NAV map are also on the cards, with a new 3D model and flight model improvements also slated for the coming updates. Lastly, an Avanti EVO features at the bottom of the to-do list as well.

The aircraft can be downloaded from X-Pilot here - alternatively, follow development news from the team in their Facebook group.