Microsoft Flight Simulator gets Halo aircraft now, real helicopters later
Choppers, gliders, and the Wright Flyer free in November's update
The Flight Simulator series turns 40 this year, which is somehow a distressing thought making me realise how fast time is passing, so Microsoft are preparing to celebrate. Come the 40th anniversary in November, they plan to release a big Microsoft Flight Simulator update with helicopters, gliders, iconic historical aircraft including the Wright Flyer, and more. But that's the future. Right now, the game has received a taste of far future with the release of Halo Infinite's Pelican aircraft as a real plane you can really fly in Flight Sim.
The Pelican is available to download now for free from Flight Sim's in-game marketplace. Yes, it really can hover and strafe about. Makes boosty noises and flaps its arms and legs and blasts flame and everything. Looks very fancy.
The big '40th Anniversary Edition' update will follow in November. Exact contents are a secret for now, but they've revealed a little. Along with re-introducing "some classic airports" they'll add more aircraft, including some familiar faces (well, they would have faces if they were in Jimbo And The Jet-Set).
Look forward to two helicopters ("brought to life with an all-new Fluid Dynamics Simulation," developers Asobo say), two gliders, an Airbus A310, and five historic planes: the Wright Flyer, the plane which started this whole thing; the Spirit Of St. Louis as flown by Charles Lindbergh on the first solo transatlantic flight; a pioneering passenger plane, the Douglas DC-3; and a Canadian icon, the De Havilland Canada DHC-2-Beaver. Presumably we'll hear about other newness between now and then.
Not E3 2022 is in full-swing - see everything in our E3 2022 hub, as well as our complete round-up of everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2022. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, so make sure you stay up to date with our summer games stream schedule.