The FlyByWire team is now fully focused on developing the Airbus A380 for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and after four years in development, the first public alpha release is ahead of us. Moreover, the developer aims to show us the aircraft in a developer live stream soon.
A new NOTAM page appeared on the FlyByWire website, disclosing a lot of important information about the aircraft. This NOTAM starts off by saying that the aircraft is going to be released in the mentioned open alpha stage. The A380, whilst will see a lot of features still missing on release, will be fully capable of doing a VATSIM A-to-B flight, which is just enough for many flight simulator users.
The public release mostly aims to enable access to 3rd party contributors to the project. This includes feedback, and possible developers, as FlyByWire projects are completely open-source.
Moreover, FlyByWire also disclosed important minimum system requirements for the Airbus A380.
Generally speaking, the A380 will run at the lowest possible settings on 1080p and 30 fps with i5-4460, GTX 1060, 8 gigabytes of memory and at least 28 gigabytes of free hard drive space.
Medium settings on 1440p and 30fps will require you to have at least i5-8400 or Ryzen equivalent, RTX3060 with 12 gigabytes of VRAM, 16 gigabytes of memory and 20 gigabytes of free SSD space.
For the best possible experience, it is recommended to have at least AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, RTX 4080 Super with 16 gigabytes of VRAM, 32 gigabytes of memory and 20 gigabytes of SSD space.
FlyByWire A380 Available Systems
The aircraft is going to have the most of core systems operable. This includes the flight management and navigation systems, which are all based on the FlyByWire FMS v2 implementation. All possible leg types are supported as well, with accurate drawing of all procedures, holding patterns support and good waypoint sequencing.
This A380 iteration is also going to accurately represent the PFD, Navigation Display, Engine and Warning Display and System Display. This will also feature precise MEMOs for the systems. The electronic checklist is also included, with both normal and abnormal procedures.
FlyByWire also took their time to develop detailed aircraft systems and failures. The A380 is thus capable of proper simulation of electrical, pneumatic, environmental, APU and fire protection systems. Currently, there are over 140 failures available via the EFB.
The aircraft also has an accurate wing flex simulation, decent flight dynamics and accurate flight control surfaces simulation. There is also the famous tilting landing gear, realistic nose wheel steering and body wheel steering. The developer also managed to implement the Heading Control Function. This function is an assistant to taxi operations by countering crosswind or ground slopes without pilot input.
Moreover, the famous A380 safety systems, like Brake-to-Vacate and Runway Overrun Protection are available in this simulator counterpart. Furthermore, there is the Onboard Airport Navigation System (OANS), helping with the flight crew’s situational awareness.
The FlyByWire A380 is also going to include the new FlyPadOS v3 and custom aircraft configuration, which will allow you to calibrate the throttles to your set-up properly. This means that if you own a two-throttle throttle quadrant, you can set it up without any issues.
The aircraft will come in the 4-class configuration. At the moment, though, there is no official support for GSX Pro, and it should be added upon the initial release or later.
Together with the aircraft, the developer wants to release a list of tutorials and aircraft documentation to make the first flights easier for virtual pilots. The aircraft is also going to be compatible with both Microsoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The plane will be capable of loading in on the release day of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, but the aircraft might not be functioning properly.
At the moment, a full list of inoperable systems is not available. However, it should be published soon.
Upcoming Developer Livestream
Via the FlyByWire Discord server, we have been informed that a major “Out of the Hangar” livestream is going to happen this Saturday, October 26th. On this livestream, the development team aims to answer community questions about the aircraft.
You can also read more about FlyByWire and their development in one of our previous articles here.
Feel free to join our Discord server to share your feedback on the article, screenshots from your flights or just chat with the rest of the team and the community. Click here to join the server.
