Yesterday, on the 4th of May, Robert Randazzo shared new information about the upcoming and highly anticipated Boeing 777 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Through the PMDG forums, he spoke about a range of topics regarding this long-haul aircraft.
Quiet Weeks Full of Work
The team is currently quiet about the development, as the team anticipates the end of the initial development cycle. This is, according to Robert, completely normal and it is a sign of good news. This is because the workload increases dramatically at the end of aircraft development in the PMDG’s team.
At the moment, the team is preparing the 777-300ER for release and the 777 Freighter for its testing phase. PMDG is currently also focusing on polishing the 300ER, testing back-end systems and getting supporting media for release.
Current State of The 777 and Possible Release
While the development cycle for the 777 ends very soon, there are still areas the PMDG team focuses on polishing before the official release can happen. The 777 will also shift from the old navigation database structure, unlocking all of the RNP and RNAV capabilities that have been waiting on the new navdata.
Another thing being worked on is the visuals and sounds as well as bug reports to the systems of the aeroplane.
A new build was sent to the testing team yesterday. Robert said that this build is very good and he has flown it from Los Angeles to Honolulu with no issues, with the aircraft being in “a high state of readiness”.
Randazzo said that they have an idea of when the initial release might happen. However, the team does not want to admit it to the public so far. A part of the development team has already jumped on the next 777 release, which seems to be confirmed to be the 777 Freighter.
He also mentioned that the release is not going to be a surprise release, and we will get at least a two-week notice before the release. The 30th anniversary of the 777 is coming close and will happen on the 12th of June. However, Robert didn’t confirm if the aeroplane is going to be released around this date.
Lastly, the release is not going to be influenced by the upcoming release of the Sim Update 15, as it should not have any effect on the release schedule. If Sim Update 15 would break PMDG aeroplanes, the entire development team would have to jump on the 737 and DC-6 first and fix these before continuing the 777 development cycle.
A single image of the 777 was shared as well. However, it only shows a bit of the fuselage and the cockpit during the night.
For now, that is everything to be said about the PMDG’s Boeing 777-300ER for Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you would like to learn more about the development of this plane, make sure to read our article about the previous development update here.
