A development update from the East: the Tupolev Tu-134 may compel you to learn Russian!

Good-quality airliners in MSFS are rare these days. It’s a new platform, and airliners are big, complex airplanes that demand a lot of work from developers. The only third-party option right now is the CRJ Series from Aerosoft. Other than that, we have some very good mods for the stock airliners (the A32NX especially, but also Salty’s 747), and nothing else. But there is a fascinating project from the Soviet Era, one that we’ve written about before, and which continues to evolve at a slow, but steady pace: the Tupolev Tu-134.

The developer has been issuing sparse updates, answering requests from curious simmers who want to know more about the development progress. On the latest video update, a lengthy one and a half hour stream, Aleksei, the main developer, takes us through a tour of the Tu-134, showing his creation in great detail.

Since the previous update a couple of months ago, we can now see some great progress in the visual looks of this Soviet classic. The cockpit is looking seriously cool, although with some missing textures at this point. In the video (in Russian), Aleksei goes through a complete overview of the flight deck, showing how everything works:

The cockpit window is now fully animated, and we can also see the rain effects on the windshield. The developer is looking for high levels of realism here, both on the visual side and with the simulation complexity. Full start-up and shutdown procedures are possible, and every twitch and knob is functional, with their respective sounds.

The autopilot has not been implemented yet, and will probably be a major source of workload for the upcoming weeks.

Externally, the model looks very good, with that bomber-inherited glassed nose that totally transpires “Soviet-era airframe here!“. Textures are still missing, as well as some animations. The developer plans to work on some custom effects that will help bring this airplane to life, and will continue to work on the external visuals.

There’s no clear indication about an expected release date, but some hints point to sometime next year. So no hurries here. However, this is a very cool project and we will continue to follow its development and report back to you, dear readers. Stay tuned!