Turtle Beach’s CEO, Juergen Stark, has in his seminar yesterday at FlightSimExpo 2021 event presented and further detailed their upcoming VelocityOne Flight yoke for all major simulators and platforms, including Xbox.
The seminar began with Juergen introducing himself and his colleague, Andrew Young, the design engineer at Turtle Beach who unfortunately couldn’t make it to San Diego in person. The seminar then continued by going in-depth about the experience that the Turtle Beach team has with flight simulation peripherals previously working on many Saitek products.
Juergen then continued detailing what were his requirements from the team for the new product. He wanted a good yoke with a good feel with no grease on the axel, a built-in throttle quadrant while still being able to appeal to hardcore simmers but also give new flight sim enthusiasts a very good experience.
This resulted in VelocityOne Flight being the first product in the industry to have both throttle options available. The team also didn’t want to force people into buying rudder pedals, so they have added rudder controls behind the yoke.
As Juergen himself stated, Turtle Beach has the advantage of being a big company and so having many suppliers that are able to deliver high-quality parts for a reasonable price to them even during these times. This is one of the aspects that make the product $379 (€320).
Andrew then took over with a pre-recorded video detailing the technical aspects of the yoke. The VelocityOne Flight is expected to have HallEffect sensors for the best accuracy (these sensors are also used by many Thrustmaster devices), optical encoders, lock and load quadrant module allowing the throttle quadrant to be easily detached, or even an integrated screen in the yoke for product set up and settings.
From the more advanced side of things, the company has used industrial machine-grade barrel springs, precision linear sliders, and aerospace-grade SS shaft coupled with a low coefficient of friction bearings. All of these small details should ensure long life and precision flying.
Andrew further detailed what will the Flight Management Display (FMD) be able to do on the yoke. Once everything is ready, the user will be able to do a variety of things through the display. These include, for example, flight time counter, change button assignments, switch profiles, or change the screen brightness or color scheme as well as enter the training mode which should help beginners in getting a better idea of the controls.
Additionally, there will be a SIP panel behind the yoke (Status Indicator Panel) which will help the simmer get a better idea of what is currently happening with the aircraft (parking brake, flap, or landing gear status, for example). This feature should allow more customization in the future, but for now, only allows a few display options.
At the end of the seminar, Juergen took over again mentioning, that the yoke is expected to come either before holiday or “well before holidays“. The product should also receive improvements over time as Microsoft is still improving hardware integration in the simulator itself.
With no comments or information disclosed on this topic, before the very end of the seminar, a slide appeared on the projection teasing a new future product that is currently in the works – Turtle Beach’s rudder pedals.
