Microsoft has just released the long-awaited 40th Anniversary Edition update (SU11) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, bringing twelve new aircraft, four classic commercial airports, fourteen heliports and twenty-four classic missions. It is the most substantial update to date in terms of new content.

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The aircraft list includes seven classics (1903 Wright Flyer, 1915 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, 1927 Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, 1935 Douglas DC-3, 1937 Grumman G-21 Goose, 1947 Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, 1947 Hughes H-4 Hercules), two helicopters (Guimbal Cabri G2, Bell 407), two sailplanes/gliders (DG Aviation LS8-18, DG-1001E neo) and a true-to-life airliner (A310-300).

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Airport-wise, we have the addition of Hong Kong Kai Tak, Chicago Meigs Field, Princess Juliana International (St. Maarten), and First Flight Airport in Kitty Hawk.
The update also includes VRAM management improvements to the DX12 version, along with the addition of AMD FSR2 and Nvidia DLSS 3 (including frame generator).
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The complete feature list follows down below:

7 classic aircraft:

• 1903 Wright Flyer
• 1915 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny
• 1927 Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis
• 1935 Douglas DC-3
• 1937 Grumman G-21 Goose
• 1947 Havilland DHC-2 Beaver
• 1947 Hughes H-4 Hercules
• 2 helicopters:
• Guimbal Cabri G2
• Bell 407

2 sailplanes/gliders:

• DG Aviation LS8-18
• DG-1001E neo

1 true-to-life airliner:

• Airbus A310-300

4 iconic airports:

• Hong Kong Kai Tak
• Meigs Field in Chicago
• Princess Juliana International in Sint Maarten
• First Flight Airport, Kitty Hawk

24 classic activities from previous Flight Simulator titles:

• First Flight at Kitty Hawk
• San Juan Island Run
• 1st US Airmail Route, 1918
• Aleutian Cargo Run
• Grand Canyon Scenic Tour
• Transcontinental Speed Record
• The Hell Stretch, 1918
• Charles Lindbergh, New York to Paris
• Hawai’ian Vacation
• Flying blind across the channel
• Meigs Field
• Spruce Goose
• Rome-Naples Airline Run
• Sitka Approach
• Monsoon
• Caribbean Landing
• Hong Kong at Dusk
• Waimea Canyon
• Mount Rushmore
• Miami by Moonlight
• San Francisco Sunset
• Mendenhall Glacier Tour
• 1950: Frontier Airlines
• Alaskan Floatplane Pilot

7 new tutorial missions for Gliders:

• Aerotow
• Winch Launch Training
• Winch Launch Training, Advanced
• Basic Handling
• Slipping Approach and Landing
• Thermal Identification
• Ridge Soaring

New features

• Live traffic has been updated with various quality of life fixes (details below)
• New memory defragmentation system has been implemented for DX12 to limit maxed out VRAM
• New Dpad / keyboard arrows navigation accessibility feature is enabled by default in the menus (alternative to the cursor)
• AMD FSR2 graphic option is now available for PC
• Title now supports new NVIDIA technologies such as DLSS3 (including Frame Generator) and Reflex on supported NVIDIA graphics cards on PC. We also added support for 2 DLSS modes Super Resolution: Auto and DLAA
• Improved atmospheric simulation with a big focus on Thermals and general tweaks for the CFD
• We added a new CFD airflow display visualization in game for aircraft that are CFD-enabled (accessible under assistances and can be mapped to a button/key)
• 3D thermals visualization can be toggled via the weather panel
• New mapping for the Back to fly feature, including height gain depending on the plane situation and current altitude (below 1000ft, 5000ft and 10 000ft), allowing to quickly adjust your flight in a variety of contexts. Very useful during glider runs if you do not wish to restart the flight after having landed

The new update is available right now on the Microsoft Store and Steam, requiring at least 41 GB of free disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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