Burning Blue Design has been making some really great airports for MSFS, as we’ve seen recently with Martha’s Vineyard Airport or, last year, with Farnborough Airport. Despite still being a relatively unknown development team, Burning Blue Design has proved its talent in scenery design for MSFS, and now we have a brand new airport to explore: Fairoaks Airport, a historical airport in the UK.
Fairoaks Airport (EGTF) is located southwest of London, currently operating as a general aviation facility. EGTF has a history that goes back to 1931, when it opened as a private airstrip. Like many other airfields in Britain, Fairoaks ended up being used by the RAF during World War II, when it was used as a training facility. About 6.000 pilots were training at Fairoaks.
The airport returned to its civilian roots in the late 1960s, operating ever since as a small airport serving GA pilots, flying schools, or police helicopters. Fairoaks fate currently stands in limbo, after ownership announced that the airport would be closed to give way to a new 1.500 unit housing development. There’s an ongoing battle to save this historic airport, but after the original control tower was demolished just a few weeks ago, a lot of concern remains for the airport’s future.
Thankfully for virtual pilots, no matter its fate in the real world, Fairoaks Airport will always be preserved in Microsoft Flight Simulator thanks to the work of Burning Blue Design. The team has just released their recreation of this airfield for MSFS, in what looks to be another very authentic and high-quality scenery.
Burning Blue Design built this airport with their usual attention to detail, based on recent visits made by the team to Fairoaks. There are dozens of authentic custom objects and buildings, including the new “temporary” control tower, high-resolution ground textures, interior modeling, static vehicles, and even a special POI, the McLaren Production Centre.
All in all, this is another very interesting new release from Burning Blue Design, aimed at GA pilots in the UK or anyone who enjoys these smaller, history-rich airfields. EGTF Fairoaks Airport is now available directly from the developer’s website, priced at £12.95.
Main features:
- Over 80 custom 3D objects have been created exclusively for Fairoaks airport, each with full Physical Based Rendering (PBR) textures.
- Based on 2022 visits to Fairoaks.
- Includes new ‘temporary’ control tower adjacent to taxiway B.
- High resolution colour corrected ground textures.
- Working custom Windsocks.
- Open hangar parking and café interiors.
- Two Isuzu TACR3 Fire Trucks with realistic liveries.
- Also included is ‘Firebird 3’, in honour of the retired Ford F-150 which was based at Fairoaks until 2019.
- Dynamic scenery and lighting, which change realistically depending on the time of day and weather.
- Correct Tower frequency, AI pattern procedures and accurate taxiway placement. (Taxiway A has been left active to reflect a fully operational airport)
- McLaren Technology Centre and Production Centre POI.
