The latest weekly update of Microsoft Flight Simulator has been released, that puts the spotlight on NAVBLUE in their Partnership Series, Alpha 5, and a large selection of screenshots.

"As we head into July, the team is excited for many of the deliverables we have planned for next month, starting with Alpha 5!" wrote the team to their website.

"In our post next week (07.02) we’ll provide a release date for Alpha 5, and a timeline for the Closed Beta release.

"This week, we are proud to introduce NAVBLUE in our Partnership Series update below!"

According to NAVBLUE's press release, "NAVBLUE is an Airbus Services company, wholly owned by Airbus, and dedicated to Flight Operations & Air Traffic Management Solutions. NAVBLUE provides digital solutions and services, and supports both civil and military environments, on the ground and onboard any aircraft and offers expertise in a range of areas, including digital cockpit operations, Operations Control Centre (OCC) systems, Flight Ops Engineering, Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Air Traffic Management (ATM)."

The press release opened by stating: "NAVBLUE is pleased to announce that it has been selected to supply their data solutions for “Microsoft Flight Simulator,” the next iteration in the franchise scheduled for release this year.

"NAVBLUE was selected to supply data solutions after an official contract was signed at the end of March 2020."

The company is to provide Microsoft Flight Simulator with real-world aeronautical data through Navigation+ and later on, through Charts+ services.

The data is authentic and used on "all major Flight Management Systems (FMS) and Flight Operation ground support tools," and will be delivered in ARINC24 format, the international standard for aircraft navigation.

"Realistic and accurate aerodrome and terminal procedure charts used by professional pilots across the globe will be supplied with Charts+ to allow gamers and virtual pilots to access genuine information about aviation procedures in the airports and airspace."

The Vice President On Board+ at NAVBLUE Pierre Madrange said: "This partnership with Xbox Game Studios is a strong endorsement of our know-how in aircraft data management, supporting both real and simulated flight operation in aviation. Partnering with a major actor in the gaming industry is a new challenge for us at NAVBLUE and we are proud of taking part in the adventure!

"We are very excited to give to our Flight Simulator community the possibility to use data of quality such as NAVBLUE’s,” said Jorg Neuman, head of “Microsoft Flight Simulator. “For the first time ever, the simulation experience will benefit from regularly proficient updated data that will give the possibility to reach a level of realism never before grasped in Microsoft Flight Simulator. With NAVBLUE, we have an excellent partner who always listens to our simulation needs and provides the tools to allows us to present the most realistic navigation data for the flight sim community."

Microsoft announced also that more Alpha invitations have been sent out, and fastened a selection of videos and screenshots to their post. Not all screenshots have been shown in this article, so head on over to the post to view them all.

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