The iniBuilds Airbus A310 is coming for free with the 40th Anniversary Edition of MSFS

There’s a surprising and huge new announcement today from the Microsoft Flight Simulator team and iniBuilds. As part of the 40th Anniversary of the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise, to be celebrated this year with a special new edition of MSFS, the two parties announced a long-term partnership for the development of the highly-detailed iniBuilds Airbus A310 for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Many of you are probably informed about iniBuilds’ efforts to bring the A310 to MSFS. It’s a project that was initially unveiled in October 2021, with a couple of development and previews since then. It has now been a few months since the last update, but that ends today with this exciting new announcement: the iniBuilds A310 is coming in November and it will be absolutely FREE!

This is undoubtedly a huge surprise, and it shows how much Microsoft is invested in this rejuvenated new version of MSFS. The Microsoft Flight Simulator team announced the 40th Anniversary Edition of our beloved simulator during today’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 (with plenty of exciting additional announcements). iniBuilds took the opportunity to share the news themselves, along with a long-overdue development update letting us know how the project has evolved over the last few months.

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Since the previous development update, iniBuilds has worked extensively on the A310’s visuals and other aesthetical properties. The 3D model has been entirely re-textured, with plenty of details added to the exterior and interior of the aircraft. The overall audioscape is also a core focus of the whole experience, as iniBuilds works to deliver an immersive audio experience in the aircraft, thanks to authentic sounds recorded from a real airplane and accurately placed in the 3D virtual environment of the A310 model in MSFS.

iniBuilds also promises a highly authentic simulation of the A310’s systems and flight model. The FMS, for example, will allow full lateral and vertical guidance modes. A modern and detailed EFB is also being developed, to include common operations such as load a weight balances, ground services interfacing, and more.

The big news here is undoubtedly the partnership between iniBuilds and the MSFS team, which will result in the free release of the A310 later this year. It’s a massive step towards bringing a true-to-life airliner to as many simmers as possible, hopefully setting the stage for further exciting new partnerships. Note that the 40th Anniversary Edition of MSFS will bring other great new airplanes, which themselves are coming under new partnerships with other notable developers such as Milviz and Aeroplane Heaven.

iniBuilds promises to share further details about this project over the coming months. For now, there’s a selection of stunning new images of the A310 in MSFS, which you can see here and in the iniBuilds’ forum.