iniBuilds finishing up work on the An-225 Mriya for MSFS, An-2 finally launching in March!

The first Developer stream of the year from Team MSFS finally took place today and, as expected, was filled with juicy details about the current state of the simulator and the awesome content coming your way over the next few months. As usual, we’ll bring you a summary of all the most important topics discussed in the nearly 2-hour stream, but we’ll start with a couple of truly fantastic aircraft news: the legendary An-225 is surprisingly nearly ready for launch, and the long-awaited An-2 is finally scheduled for a release soon after!

Antonov was the star of the show in today’s stream with important news about these two airplanes. The An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane in operation at the time of its destruction in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator perhaps sooner than anticipated. The MSFS team revealed their intent on reviving this massive airplane in the simulator back in April 2022. To everyone’s surprise, the full scope of the project was unveiled today!

iniBuilds is once again partnering with the MSFS team on a new aircraft. After the impressive A310, iniBuilds is now building the An-225 at a steady pace. In fact, the goal is for the release to take place on February 27th, exactly one year after its destruction.

This section of the live stream turned a bit emotional when Dmytro Antonov himself, the Mriya’s chief pilot, showed up to give his heartfelt testimony about the airplane, his experience flying it, and the joy of seeing it come to life again in the virtual skies of MSFS.

Then, an Antonov representative talked about Antonov’s new openness as a company, following the recent tragic events that affected its operations. The world’s solidarity and support for the company have generated a willingness to share more of their work with the flight simulation community, which starts now with the release of the An-225, the An-2, and the promise of other exciting projects to follow.

Finally, it was time for Cameron MacMillan, from iniBuilds, to present the aircraft in great detail. It’s surprising how much it has evolved in less than a year of development! Cameron provided a detailed look into the Mriya’s extensive flight deck, which typically accommodated a crew of 6 to manage all the flight operations and systems.

The preview presented us not only with a detailed view of the interior of the An-225, from the cockpit to the massive cargo bay, but also with a close look at the exterior modeling and texturing, night lighting, a few cool facts about the airplane, and more. iniBuilds is even including an EFB with additional options such as payloads (you’ll be able to load a train, a fire truck, a helicopter, and more!).

The An-225 will be a payware airplane priced at around $20. Sales will revert in full to the rebuilding efforts that aim to bring the An-225 back to life in the real world, which is definitely to be commended! As said before, the goal is to release the An-225 in the Marketplace by the time of the first anniversary of its destruction, on February 27th. However, this should only be true for the PC version… since this aircraft uses WASM, which is only coming to the Xbox with Sim Update 12, console simmers will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on this mighty bird. However, if all goes well, SU12 is scheduled to go live on March 14th, so the waiting time won’t be long.

There’s finally a green light for the An-2!

There’s another Antonov aircraft coming very soon, and it’s one that has been stuck in the pipeline for a long time. The An-2 from ATSimulations is finally “unstuck” after Antonov and Microsoft settled their partnership agreement. Antonov’s license has finally come, and Andrei Tsvirenko’s aircraft, which has been finished for quite a while, will be out for Microsoft Flight Simulator in March, by the time Sim Update 12 hits the rounds.

Andrei made an appearance once again to talk about his creation, very much like he did… back in 2021! It’s clearly a labor of love for the developer, who speaks with passion about the aircraft and sets the bar high for this rugged bush plane from the East.

We’ll leave you with the striking first images of the An-225 above and some beautiful early shots of the An-2. There’s a lot more to unpack about today’s stream, so stay tuned for further coverage very soon!