With the recent launch of the Top Gun: Maverick expansion, Microsoft Flight Simulator gained some new capabilities in terms of allowing simmers to experience the thrills of aircraft carrier landings. It was a feature that was requested ever since the simulator launched back in August 2020, now possible within the constraints of the Top Gun: Maverick experience… sadly, the experience remains somewhat limited.
As with many other times, we’re counting on the talented community of developers to further expand the capabilities of the simulator, as we’ve seen recently with this freeware mod that brings the Top Gun aircraft carrier to free flight mode, which enables pilots to land on the carrier with a different airplane and outside of the limited landing challenge.
Today we’re bringing you an awesome new teaser, this time from Seafront Simulations, who are now working to make their own ships landable in the simulator!
Seafront Simulations is obviously known for their effort in bringing the coastlines and seas to life in MSFS, with a growing number of regional and global packages that add thousands of realistic and animated vessels of all kinds. Now, with the help of Jayshrike, the same developer who created the aforementioned mod for the Top Gun carrier, Seafront Simulations is testing a new type of custom moving ship with a hard, landable surface that simmers can land on.
This functionality was just teased this week by the development team, who shared a couple of videos showing it in action. These videos provide a cool sneak peek into this upcoming feature that Seafront Simulations will soon implement in their future projects and also in the existing ones, via an update.
In the videos we can see two attempts to land two kinds of rotorcraft in a moving ship. The most interesting one features the HPG H145 helicopter, starting with a stunning view from the cockpit as a military vessel with a helipad passes by. Then, we see the pilot attempting to land on the custom ship, a challenging task as the landing target moves forward in the sea.
This is definitely a very cool idea that opens up a wide variety of landing opportunities for both rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft. Seafront Simulations told us that they are still testing the limits of this implementation, but hope to bring it soon to new and existing products. For now, enjoy the videos and stay tuned for further updates, which we’ll share with you in due time!
