Flight Simulation Add-ons in the 2010’s

About"No. 303 Fighter Squadron was formed in Britain in July 1940 comprised of polish and other nations pilots. It fought alongside other RAF units in the Battle of Britain. The 303 Squdadron was well-known for its bravado, fearless attitude, precision and professionalism. During the WWII, they were one of the most effective units of Royal Air Force."

AboutHigh paced and great looking aerial action which could be a modern 'Strike Commander' if it supported HOTAS and TrackIR. It no doubt serves console players well but excludes itself from the running for those coming from the sim end of the field because of these issues. Bizarrely though, Bandai-Namco did a deal to support a specific Ace Combat model joystick from Thrustmaster. This left me looking forlornly at my top-of -the-range Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS and TRP rudder pedals and wondering why I couldn't join the party? || Eventually I did find workarounds on Steam which allowed my HOTAS and TrackIR to work in the sim.

AboutA cross platform sim with gorgeous graphics and a fluid flight model. The sim ran totally fluidly on my i7 and Nvidia 1060 graphics card. Helicopter flight modelling seems well supported. A great variety of aircraft are provided in the standard fleet. The interface and load times are a marvel to behold (they are fast!). My only question remains as to the flight planning, which I found quite obscure. I'll return to that.

AboutArcade flight sim: Become immersed in the exploits of famous aircraft carriers. Choose the side you want to play on: the US Navy or the Imperial Japanese Navy.'

AboutArcade flight simulation set in a world war I + II scenario. During the 7 campaigns the player has to fly and fight through 49 missions.'

AboutYou are Joe Thompson, an intrepid and patriotic pilot fighting to uphold the values of his country. '

AboutMobile sim featuring air combat in jet fighters.

About"Air Manager is an application which allows you to create your own 2D flight simulator panels. You can run it on the same computer as your flight simulator, or on a seperate computer. It will automatically connect to your X-plane, FSX or Prepar3d flight simulator on your local network."

About"Action combat flight simulator based on the Russian Mi-24 Hind assault helicopter."

AboutMobile sim featuring air combat in carrier based jet fighters.

About"Combat gameplay in a massive military sandbox. Deploying a wide variety of single- and multiplayer content, over 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, and limitless opportunities for content creation"

About"'Arma 3 Helicopters, the second premium DLC for Arma 3, features the highly detailed CH-67 Huron and Mi-290 Taru heavy-lift helicopters, a Sling Loading showcase scenario, and four exclusive helicopter Time Trial challenges. The DLC is complemented by a major free platform update for Arma 3, which lands the new Support MP mode, sling loading, RotorLib, firing from vehicles, and more."

About"Fly brand new air-superiority jets and use advanced targeting systems to shoot down the enemy in the Arma 3 Jets DLC."

About"As the busy operator of a hangar and runway in the heart of a region like the Serengeti, there are countless ways to earn a living. As an ‘old school’ bush pilot, you must undertake challenging jobs to make the lives of both tourists and locals a lot easier. Fight bush fires, transport goods, find missing people & items, serve as a first responder & wildlife preservationist, or simply take some snapshots of archaeological finds."

About"Carrier Deck is a fast paced time management game where you will play as the Air Officer on board a CVN-76 in the midst of active war."

AboutMobile sim focussed on carrier landings.

AboutHaving immensely enjoyed ORBX "AU Australia v2" I splashed out the coin for "ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D". First up let me say that overall it is great! At about 1/2 the retail price of the host sim (Prepar3D) for a relatively small area (you can fly across the main area of interest in a few minutes in a slow mover), it has to be categorised as a premium product. While I rate the scenery at 4, given the constraints of the host sim, the price drives down the rating by a1 point. Unless you live in the area I find it hard to justify this price point considering the host sim covers the entire planet.

About2016 simulation of the AV-8B Harrier. This sim could pick up where SVGA Harrier Assault left off in 1992, with a flyable AV-8B Harrier and a dynamic campaign!

AboutSuccessor to Flanker 1.5, Su-27 2.0, LOMAC and others, this sim continues the mission of presenting a high quality combat flight sim environment. " DCS is a true "sandbox" simulation that is also designed to cover multiple time periods of interest such as WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War and others."

About"Pilot a wide range of aircraft, engage in aerial dogfights and dangerous fighter missions across the major theaters of war during WWII."

AboutMobile sim focussed on exciting landing scenarios.

AboutMobile sim focussed on carrier landings.

AboutIOS sim from the makers of a long line of PC and Mac F/A-18 sims. Based on F/A-18 Korea

AboutFlag bearer of flight simulation's most distinguished dynasty, this release is a heavily modded version of 1998's Falcon 4.0.

About"Air-combat action game based on the true events of America’s secret volunteer squadrons that defended China against Japan in the China-Burma-India theatre of World War 2."

About" Fly virtual reality like never before in FlyInside Flight Simulator. FlyInside Flight Simulator includes cutting-edge VR support (but works great on the desktop too), a 64-bit engine designed for modern GPUs and multi-core systems, ten high-quality stock aircraft, and an innovative scenery system! "

AboutAllows you to use TrackIR in some games which don't have TrackIR support.
"FreePIE (Programmable Input Emulator) is a application for bridging and emulating input devices."

AboutOne of the most dramatic improvements to the MSFS world, bringing coastal areas to life with a fascinating array of nautical wonders!

About"Become a professional pilot and rescuer. Control different helicopters, protect the city and be a part of the rescue team!"

AboutMobile sim focussed on military rotary wing operations.

About"Become an emergency pilot and test your skills to their limits, as you sit in the cockpit of an emergency helicopter, across more than 40 challenging missions. Choose from 8 models of 'copter, each varying in size, ability and specs."

AboutMobile sim focussed on WWII aircraft, in particular landing and carrier operations.

About" the most famous air battles of World War II" - Steam

AboutAn action filled and gloriously good looking Battle of Britain sim, 7 years in the making and based on 2010's 'IL-2: Cliffs of Dover'. At this point I only have about 6 hours in this sim, which puts me 3 missions into the RAF campaign. The MiGPit Mk.VI is running it like a dream at 3840 x 2160, and if the frame rates hold up in more complex missions I can only give this my highest recommendation to anybody hankering after intense BOB action!

About"Touch down in the tropics and transport freight between twelve exotic islands in more than a hundred exciting missions."

AboutIf EA/Janes had literally rebooted the mission content of their own US Navy Fighters sims into this game engine they would have had a blockbuster. Instead we are left with arcade style scenarios with swarms of enemies and unlimited fictitious weapons. What a missed opportunity. The PC sim crowd expects more, especially from a sim with the Janes name attached. Undoubtably a good contender in the console arena, but I found it a disappointing end to the Janes Combat Simulations legacy.

AboutRemap your joysticks and game controllers. Doesn't always work in a sim, but brilliant for the desktop environment. I remapped an old Logitech game pad so I could cut (Ctrl-X), copy (Ctrl-C), paste (Ctrl-V), save (Ctrl-S), close window (Ctrl-W) and Delete (Delete !!!) etc in windows apps with one touch.

AboutPossibly the most useful utility the flight sim community has ever seen, Little Navmap brings flight planning, real time navigation and much more to the most popular flight sims.

AboutMACE(Modern Air Combat Environment)is a physics-based, full spectrum Computer Generated/Semi-Automated Forces (CGF/SAF) application with a large and user-extensible order of battle, capable of many-on-many simulation yet having very high fidelity at the engagement level.

AboutMobile sim focussed on operations of the Italian Navy, including fixed and rotary wing operations.

AboutPrepar3D kept the Microsoft Flight Sim flame alive after MS abandoned their flagship product in 2010. It expanded the base software into commercial and military markets while still allowing the personal user to keep the dream alive. I only wish I had more time to devote to exploring the sim but life intervened and by the time I had resources to spend on it MSFS 2020 was mere months away. Nonetheless I managed to get a few months in on the F-35 and F-16 and with Air Manager driving all my panels and an 85" screen to fly through, I got a taste of the reliable and fluid flying experience that many thousands of military and amateur pilots like me had been enjoying over during the 20 teen decade.

About"Pilot legendary aircraft of the early years of aviation, French Spad 13, German Albatros D.Va and Russian built Nieuport 17, in the free-to-play Rise of Flight United! " - Steam

AboutThis software is an integral part of my MiGPit. It has a WYSIWYG interface which enables quick and customisable construction of aircraft instruments which display live data from Microsoft Flight Sim to Android devices.

About"BUILD AIRPLANES. You have the tools you'll need to bring any airplane to life. Snap parts together to build your airplane's body. Place engines to add thrust. Design and attach wings and then strap yourself into the cockpit and see how it flies." - Steam

AboutSimulation Panel Advanced Drivers: neXt Generation
SPAD.neXt was started as a replacement software for Saitek (now Logitech) panels. Now many other hardware devices are supported.

AboutTake on Helicopters is a civil helo sim with campaign built in the ARMA 2 engine. This sim was released in 2011 and still looks great 10 years later. The fluid feel of the flight dynamics and the immersive campaign put it into my list of all time favourites. I can only hope that Bohemia Interactive release more titles like this, they don't need to update the engine - just give us more great stories to fly through!

About"Experience furious helicopter action in this relentless, adrenaline (and lead) pumped arcade shooter!" - Steam

About"Vector Thrust is a fast-paced single and mulltiplayer combat flight game, using a unique cel shaded art style." - Steam

About"A flight-based action game designed to be easy to pick up and enjoy right away, and be playable over short timeframes." - Steam

About"War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. " - Steam