The Microsoft Flight Simulator team announced this week that a new kind of experience is coming to the sim. It’s an airplane, a very special one in fact, but you won’t be able to fly it (at least, not for now). In a new partnership with Orbis International, soon you will be able to tour the organization’s very own McDonnell Douglas DC-10 inside Flight Simulator.
Orbis is a non-profit organization that flies all over the world providing treatment and prevention of avoidable blindness, a big problem that affects millions of people but can usually be treated or prevented. To carry on its mission, Orbis uses a fully customized DC-10, which was converted from a FedEx cargo plane into a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, the Orbis Flying Eye.
It’s an incredibly important mission that has been changing millions of lives for years, and it wouldn’t be possible without Orbis’ flying hospital. It’s fully equipped as a teaching hospital, with operating and laser treatment rooms, simulation centre and classroom, thus being able to both treat patients and teach local professionals in the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness.
To help raise awareness to Orbis’ mission, the DC-10 Flying Eye will soon be available in MSFS as a highly detailed model that you will be able to explore. The modular interior has been fully modeled for MSFS users to visit and see with their own eyes how this engineering marvel has been put together.
Unfortunately, this DC-10 won’t fly in MSFS at this point. We are sure this will likely be possible in the future in one way or another, but for now it will only be a sightseeing opportunity, but a very important one if it raises awareness for this mission.
The DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital will be available as a free download on July 27, coincidentally the same day as the Xbox release of MSFS and performance-oriented Sim Update V for PC.
