StarSim has recently released their rendition of Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) for X-Plane 11 and 12, the 21st busiest airport in the United States with a yearly average of 19.6 million passengers.

The airport site has been used for aeronautical activities since 1925 when the Pennsylvania National Guard began using it as a training airfield. Two years later, it became “Philadelphia Municipal Airport,” despite not having an actual passenger terminal until 1940, which forced airlines to use the nearby Camden Central Airport instead (they all moved to PHL once they finally built a terminal).

It was heavily used during WW2 by the USAF as a training airfield, organizing and training multiple fighter and bomber groups throughout the war.

It was granted international status in 1945 when American Overseas Airlines started their direct flights to Europe. By 1957, the airport had over 30 weekday departures by the wings of Eastern, TWA, United, American, National, Capital, Allegheny, and Delta.

Nowadays, PHL is dominated by American Airlines (63.75%), the dominance of which dates back to the US Airways days, way before the merger, starting in the 1980s and gaining major strength in 2003, when most of their hub operations were shifted from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. It was their largest international hub and second-largest overall behind Charlotte and has since shifted hands to American Airlines after the merger in 2015. Frontier (11.02%), Spirit Airlines (6.59%), Delta Air Lines (6.00%), and Southwest Airlines (4.51%) take the remainder of the market share.

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with a fully modeled interior for all seven terminals, high-resolution PBR texturing for ground and objects, animated custom jetways, realistic custom mesh, custom road network, accurate 2023 airport layout, and optimized for X-Plane 12 and its new features, while also being compatible with X-Plane 11.

It’s available on the X-Plane.Org Store for $24.00, requiring at least 3.56 GB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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