What very much seems like an early April Fool’s prank, especially when happening so close to April 1st, might not be one. Navigraph has today taken to their social network profiles and official blog to announce the acquiry of SimBrief, probably the most-used flight planner within the community.
The acquisition is a natural progression of the already close collaboration between Navigraph and SimBrief. It builds on the integration between the two platforms existing since 2013 and provides the ability to do flight planning using up to date navigational data.
Magnus Axholt, CEO and co-founder of Navigraph
Whilst still wanting to keep the website, and all its functionalities, free for everyone, Navigraph is looking into integrating SimBrief and Navigraph even further than now using the data and resources the company has available.
Derek, the developer and the main guy behind SimBrief, will continue to work closely with Navigraph on further improving the services, both SimBrief and Navigraph. Magnus further detailed:
With the powerful combination of his real world aviation background and software development experience, Derek is a very welcome member of our skilled and multi-disciplinary Navigraph Development Team.
Magnus Axholt, CEO and co-founder of Navigraph
The Navigraph team is additionally looking into making SimBrief’s functionalities even more accessible to developers in the community. As mentioned earlier in the article, SimBrief functionalities will continue to be free:
SimBrief’s flight planning functionality will continue to be free. Users who want to use the most current navigational data can subscribe to Navigraph and unlock the AIRAC cycles in SimBrief, as before.
Magnus Axholt, CEO and co-founder of Navigraph
The SimBrief brand will remain the same as is right now, only a tag line will be added saying “by Navigraph”.
For those skeptical flight simmers who believe this is a one big April Fools’ joke, we are still looking into the topic, however, Navigraph has confirmed in the comment section, that it is not a joke and that they were also “a little concerned” about announcing this so close to April 1st. Additionally, the company looks to be very serious about the event.
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