It’s hardly a secret that the Panavia Tornado is making its way into Microsoft Flight Simulator from the hands of at least two talented teams of developers. Seven months ago Just Flight announced their rendition of the aircraft, but it was Indiafoxtecho who first unveiled their own plans for the aircraft, with an initial selection of teaser images and a few basic details about the project.
Now, many months later, we’ve finally heard news about Indiafoxtecho’s Tornado for MSFS. The project is alive and well, but it took a while to reach this stage due to the developer’s displeasure with their existing graphical assets. So, a decision was made to basically do it all again from scratch.
The good news is that the Indiafoxtecho Tornado now sports a much more accurate and detailed 3D model and textures. At least the developers seem much happier with the current state of the graphics, even if they are still not finished, but a good baseline is there to hopefully bring us a beautiful airplane in line with the team’s most recent offerings.
These new preview images showcase the Tornado in its most basic grey livery. It’s not as striking as other available paint schemes, but it’s sort of a baseline that, once made right, should make the work easier for the other liveries. Note, for example, the layers of dirt and other signs of use, which go a long way to make the aircraft look realistic.
Indiafoxtecho reiterated that the legacy IDS variant (Interdiction/Strike) will serve as the base for the development of the cockpit and systems. Other variants will be included – the ECR (Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance), and the ADV (Air Defense Variant) fighter – but the IDS will be used as a baseline for all forthcoming variants.
With that said, it’s unclear at this moment which will be the next release from Indiafoxtecho. The work on the Tornado seems to be at an early stage, but we know the team is also working on the F-14 Tomcat and the Eurofighter. Hopefully, the team will soon shed some light on their release schedule for the year.
