Yesterday’s reveal of the long-awaited Xbox launch date for Flight Simulator came with a surprising announcement. Following the console release on July 27, the Flight Simulator team is preparing the launch of a freeware expansion inspired by the new Top Gun movie, with both the film and the MSFS expansion to premiere on November 19.
The Top Gun: Maverick expansion will be a free DLC, and was revealed at the end of the Xbox trailer that was released during E3. The 30 seconds of footage recreated some iconic scenes of the movie trailer, showing some potentially very cool new content for Flight Simulator.
For starters, we get to see two new aircraft. First, the carrier-capable Super Hornet, which will replace the F-14 Tomcat in the central role for the new movie. We also get a glimpse into what seems to be an SR-72, the concept hypersonic UAV that will also have some role in the upcoming movie.
Together with new aircraft, it’s likely that the Top Gun: Maverick expansion will also introduce carrier operations in Flight Simulator. This is an often requested new feature from simmers, and even though there’s a third-party mod that tries to recreate this feature, it definitely feels like some kind of a hack. Seeing official carrier support come to MSFS, especially after the Xbox release, is a great marketing move that caters to those used to console games such as Ace Combat.
June is proving to be a sprightly month in Flight Simulator. Besides the Xbox launch date announcement and the reveal of this new upcoming DLC, we will also have World Update V coming in just a few days. Besides, there are a few exciting new add-on releases, such as the first MSFS aircraft from PMDG, among many others. As usual, stay tuned on our news feed to learn all about the latest news and great new add-ons for Flight Simulator!
