Just Flight has recently published a new development update on their upcoming Fokker 70/100 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, showcasing their advancements on what allegedly pushes the boundaries of what their products can deliver.

The developers take us on a test flight from Salzburg to Brussels using the latest beta version of their Fokker 100 Professional. They highlight that it is still very much a work in progress, with bugs and unfinished elements to be expected (and pointed out along the way).

They start by showcasing the flight deck with its sweet mixture of CRT displays and analogue gauges from the beginning of the “glass cockpit” era. The texturing was made using reference imagery of the real aircraft, and it also includes customizable elements such as different taxi light configurations and multiple panel and instrument configurations across the F70 and 100.

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The externals have also been based on real imagery, with hand-placed rivets, screws, and panels. 

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Just Flight has also paid special attention to the cabin, bringing a meticulous craft of the Fokker 100’s different passenger cabin configurations, with internal and external cargo and passenger door options, changing per livery configuration. The work on the cabin is mostly complete, with the only remaining things being fine-tuning the lighting and integrating specific cabin-to-cockpit interactions.

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They have been focusing a lot on performance optimization, achieving FPS figures within 5% of the default 747 and 787 in MSFS 2020 with their latest F100 beta build. Just Flight reinforces that FPS figures will vary from machine to machine, scenery to scenery, and so on. They will encourage content creators to show performance figures once they are given access to the product for their reviews.

The interactive checklists were included in full, housing over 300 items, 250 of which you are supposed to check before take-off, albeit most of them are only checked during the first flight of the day after a cold and dark startup. From all the tests and stuff, they have yet to complete the annunciator test, which involves a very specific, ordered illumination of all the cockpit annunciators. They captured a slow-motion video of this test from a real Fokker, allowing them to replicate it with maximum accuracy.

Their FMS (Flight Management System) is custom-coded from scratch, including features such as IRS alignment (real-time and fast align), manual IRS alignment adjustment, manual flight plan entry, automatic and manual navaid tuning, navigation and performance monitoring, custom waypoint creation, and vertical navigation. They will dive deeper into the FMS in their upcoming marketing content and operations manual.

The FMS on both the F70 and F100 is said to be the most complex system they have developed so far, as it’s the heart of the aircraft, interacting with the autopilot, flight model, EFIS displays, and other systems. This complexity takes time to develop and has been the most time-consuming part so far, but they consider it feature-complete as of now. 

Based on recent testing, Just Flight claims their F70/F100 add-on is within 95% of real-world data, sometimes even reaching 100% accuracy in certain phases of the climb profile. The accuracy will continue to improve as the company further develops the product.

Their Fokker 100 is already able to perform a successful autoland, although they have to be “extra vigilant” due to the beta nature of their aircraft. 

There is no pricing or release date information yet, but Just Flight plans to share more information soon. They are very proud of how far they have come with their most ambitious project yet in terms of sheer complexity.

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