The 737-300 is one of the most iconic products in X-Plane, but since release, only a few updates has been released and the latest version was issued back in February. A significant portion of X-Plane 11 has evolved in the length of time leading to today. The aircraft recently has a discount from the Cyber Monday sale, and that has renewed interest in the product.

Mounting concerns and self-scaremongering by the community has led IXEG to clarify and assure users that they are indeed still alive and well, and the 737-300 is not abandoned. The IXEG 737-300 project was done out of free time and is a labor of love, the recent long period of silence simply stems from the developers becoming busy with real life commitments.

That said, one of the team members has explained what happened to the 737 and dismisses the the team has 'abandoned' the plane. He issued a non official update on the matter, responding to inquiries made by users on a Facebook post in the IXEG 737 Pilots group. The post, asking simmers what do they want improved in the 737, has attracted a mountain of wishlists by 737 users.

Near the end of the comment list, lead FMS programmer Tom Kyler has provided an inpromptu update. The developer has revealed that he is working at NASA, and that job commitment has sapped up all the free time he has previously. To complicte things, the constant update of X-Plane 11 has proven challenging to issue out new updates, having to port from one toolchain to another.

"Hey guys, I hear and understand. Been a very long window of committment for me to NASA" -Tom Kyler

Tom confirms that the future update would include an improved VNAV, and of course keeping up with the trend in the aircraft development community, a detailed cabin modelling:

Tom also opens up the possibility of a paid upgrade, but assures everyone that they won't be surprising anybody with an upgrade cost when they do. To our knowledge the upcoming update will be free.

Earlier, another developer, Jan, has also clarifed that the issues prevalent that is affecting the IXEG 737 in v11.30 will be/is already fixed by the Laminar Research team:

Jan has also informed back in February that the team is looking to convert the sounds to FMOD. From the information gathered, we can safely expect that the future update will include four main improvements: FMOD Sounds, a detailed cabin interior modelling, and improved system functionality such as the FMS and improved VNAV.

We can only wait to see what will come of the next update when a stable version of X-Plane 11.30 rolls out. For now, it's safe to say that the product is far from neglected.