A development update of the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat for MSFS

Following on the success of the Gee Bee R3 Special, a very fun little aircraft that was released for MSFS last August, the Got Friends collective is now working on two very promising new projects, as we reported a couple of months ago: Mike Patey’s Draco and the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. It’s the latter that appears to be in a more advanced stage of development, with the team sharing some development updates over the last couple of weeks.

When the Wildcat was first announced, Got Friends revealed that they were using a 3D model from Carlocestra285. This model is now being completely overhauled to take it to the levels of realism and accuracy that the team is looking for, and they are counting with a new team member to help achieve this. Mykrode is the name of the 4th official Got Friends member, whose work you may recall seeing in a freeware Fokker DR.1 that has gained some popularity recently. His work, together with 270Inc’s, is proving to be quite successful, as seen in many of the first images of the F4F-4 for MSFS.

A good 3D model goes only so far to deliver an authentic experience in a flight simulator, so naturally the team is counting with Got Gravel’s talent to work on the flight model and systems of the Wildcat. This is looking rather promising, with several great features like a fully functional hydraulic flap system with aerodynamic pushback, catapult and tail-hook arrestor control from an included tablet, and more. The latter is particularly interesting, because it will enable Xbox pilots to execute carrier operations with the Wildcat, since there’s no need for an external app!

Got Friends say the last few weeks were very good for the team, with significant advancements in the Wildcat’s development. This can be seen in the beautiful new images that have been released, which show the great work that is being done with the model. Furthermore, they are already working on complex animations, such as the landing gear, which can be previewed in the video below:

So, things seem to be going well with the Got Friends Wildcat. The last estimated release date pointed to early 2022, and there’s no news so far about any changes in that regard. Until then, we’ll continue to follow the development of this aircraft, hopefully with some updates about the Draco too.