Back in May, SimWorks Studios dropped a line at the end of a routine development update that set the rumour mill in motion: the team had been working on a large project in secret “for years”, and an announcement would come once the dust settled around FSReborn’s Phenom 300. Today we finally know what it is… and it’s a big one! SimWorks Studios is building the original Dash 8 family, the 100, 200 and 300, for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, under the name “The Classic 8 Series”.
The reveal came at the end of a new roadmap video covering the studio’s plans through the end of 2026, and it instantly sets a new target around one of the most requested regional turboprops in the sim. Until now, simmers wanting a Dash 8 had two options on the horizon: Virtualcol’s budget-tier renditions, which recently grew into a full 100/200/300 series, and Majestic Software’s elusive Q400, which we last saw in early in-sim screenshots.
SimWorks Studios now enters that picture from a very different angle: a developer with a reputation built on the Kodiak 100 and the PC-12, taking on the steam-gauge generation of the aircraft rather than the modern Q400.
What video shows
The shots, all captured in MSFS 2024, focus heavily on the cockpit, and it’s easy to see why. The Classic 8’s flight deck is a proper analogue affair: rows of engine gauges, a fully populated overhead panel with ice protection, engine start, bleed and pressurization controls, and the characteristic centre console with its chunky power levers. Even at this stage, the level of detail in the panels looks consistent with what the studio delivered on the PC-12 and Kodiak.
One detail worth pointing out: nowhere in the video or the screenshots does the name “De Havilland” or even “Dash 8” appear. The product is called the Classic 8 Series, and every image carries a disclaimer stating the add-on is “not affiliated with or endorsed by the aircraft manufacturer”. This reads like the project is proceeding without an official license, a route other developers have taken with unlicensed types, though SimWorks Studios has not commented on the matter.
That is, for now, the extent of what we know. No release window, no pricing, and no feature list were shared for the Classic 8 Series. Given the studio said the project has been in development for years, we’d hope it’s further along than the announcement suggests, but that’s just speculation on our part.
The rest of the roadmap: a very busy 2026
The Classic 8 was the closing surprise, but the roadmap video laid out a concrete schedule for the rest of the year, and it’s dense. For Q3 2026, three items are on the calendar:
The PC-12 Legacy FS2024 Edition brings the studio’s acclaimed Pilatus to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 as a native product. The Kodiak 100 Amphibian Edition puts the utility turboprop on floats, opening up water operations for an aircraft that only recently made its native MSFS 2024 debut. And the Kodiak 100 Medevac Expansion adds an air ambulance configuration, shown in the video with a dedicated interior and livery.
Q4 2026 brings two more. The Kodiak 900, the stretched and faster evolution of the Kodiak line, finally gets a slot after being mentioned in development updates for some time. And the PC-12NG FS2024 appears to expand the Pilatus lineup beyond the Legacy variants toward the Next Generation model, again as a native MSFS 2024 release.
As with the Classic 8, no pricing was announced for any of these, and the quarters shown should be read as targets rather than promises. Still, taken together, this is the most ambitious slate SimWorks Studios has ever put on a single slide: two Kodiak products, two PC-12 products, and a three-variant regional airliner, all within roughly a year.
We’ll be adding the Classic 8 Series to our list of aircraft in development for MSFS, and we’ll be following this one closely. If the studio’s previous work is any indication of intent, the prospect of a Dash 8 in MSFS just got a lot more interesting!
