Aircraft Development Update July 2025!

[mattY]

Hello!

It’s been a minute since we’ve provided you with a development update on the plane side of iniBuilds, so we thought it was time to give you some of the latest! 

We’ve had a few plane releases this year, starting with, of course the iniBuilds A350 Airliner, then something slightly smaller with the Spartan 7W Executive and the latest of which being the F406 Caravan II. To start with, we want to extend our immense thanks to the community for the support and feedback across all these products. We love making these and the reception to them has been fantastic. The A350 Airliner was of course the most anticipated and since release, we have been working hard to ensure you have the best possible experience and we will continue to do so with our update schedule!

The most recent updates; v1.1.1 and v1.1.2, each bring a suite of new features, critical fixes, and deeper immersion to your long-haul flying. 
The highlight of v1.1.1 was the long-awaited collimated Heads-Up Display (HUD), now fully functional, with dynamic declutter logic, crosswind mode, and accurate FMA symbology. This new feature makes high-precision flying even more intuitive, especially in poor visibility or challenging approaches. 
We’ve also refined key aircraft systems based on your feedback: 

• Hydraulics & Flaps Logic: Completely reworked to reflect real-world asymmetry handling and ADBG system behavior. 
• Vertical Display Range Indicator & Cursor Interactions: Known issues have been acknowledged, and adjustments are underway in future builds. 
• ECAM Memo Formatting: Minor discrepancies clarified, our layout is based on a real-world MSN configuration and reference airline. 

Visually, we’ve introduced multiple improvements to elevate realism even further: 

• Enhanced engine blur animations and metallic surface textures. 
• New MSFS 2024-exclusive weathering effects, from surface dents to subtle tape details. 
• Window blinds are now visible from the exterior model, a small but immersive addition. 

Following community input, we’ve also taken care to address bug reports across avionics, the FMS, and the CPDLC system, with v1.1.2 focusing heavily on FADEC behavior, HUD readability, EFB stutter improvements, and broader sound balancing, especially for users with active ANR systems. 
We’re also delighted to confirm that the A350 Airliner has launched on Xbox for MSFS 2024! After a long testing period, to ensure the aircraft was where we wanted it to be on an initial release, we were satisfied with the build that went live! We are still working on the MSFS 2020 Xbox build, which is unfortunately not where it needs to be. We hope that this will be ready soon, until then, we appreciate your patience. 

WASM Testing Group 
For those still having WASM related issues, SU3 fixes some core sim areas that handle memory allocation. As this is imminent, we want to try and identify any last remaining WASM issues people are having for our next update which is launching next week.

To help tackle lingering WASM crashes and instability, we’ve launched a dedicated WASM testing group on Discord. This group is focused on tracking down and resolving bugs that occur on specific setups, especially across different platforms and configurations. 

If you’ve experienced repeatable WASM issues, we’d love for you to join the effort and collaborate with our developers. By sharing logs, setups, and steps to reproduce problems, you’ll be playing a direct role in enhancing stability across the board, especially as we work in tandem with simulator-side improvements expected in Sim Update 3. 

Join here: https://discord.gg/WcT48gB453

Plans Moving Forwards 
With the release of v1.1.2, we’ve now successfully delivered on all major milestones we set out for the A350 Airliner earlier this year, from feature rollouts like the collimated HUD and Ultra Long Range variant, to the continual refinement of systems, flight dynamics, visuals, and stability. 

But the process doesn’t stop here - we remain fully committed to the ongoing development of the A350. With continuous updates planned to further refine the experience, address emerging bugs, and ensure maximum compatibility and performance across all supported platforms, including Xbox and, eventually, MSFS 2020.  

Looking ahead, we’re also incredibly excited to expand the iniBuilds Airliner series even further. You might have picked up on a little teaser in the A350 Airliner ULR update. We want to take this opportunity to officially announce our latest project in the works... 

Introducing the iniBuilds Airliner A340 Airliner for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024! 

You guys have a keen eye! For all of you that saw D-AIGU and guessed that our next project was the A340 Airliner, you’d be correct! 

This long-haul four-engine widebody will build on everything we’ve learned throughout the iniBuilds A300-600R and iniBuilds A350 Airliner  development cycles, from deep system simulation and custom sound environments to highly detailed visuals and immersive flight deck logic. The A340’s unique characteristics, including its engine configuration, weight and balance, and handling dynamics, present new and exciting challenges that we’re excited to bring to life in the sim. 

Development has already been underway behind the scenes, and we’ve made significant progress in multiple areas, particularly around the visuals, flight dynamics and systems.  

The visuals of the aircraft can be seen in some of the following screenshots, which showcase all those lessons we’ve learnt along the way, ensuring some of the highest quality modelling and texturing you’ve seen on an aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

Click the enlarge.

Much like the A350 Airliner, the iniBuilds A340 Airliner will include full EFB integration, a robust failure system, and a wide selection of real-world liveries and custom cabins at launch, among other things.  



The iniBuilds A340 Airliner will be the A340-313 variant utilising the CFM56-5C4 engine variant - the most engine thrust available for this variant and engine type (still expect slow climbs though 😛! )

We are also pleased to share that there will be three variants: the iniBuilds A340 Airliner Passenger, the iniBuilds A340 Airliner Preighter (converted passenger variant for freighter operations) and the iniBuilds A340 Airliner ACJ (Luxury configuration). This will all be in one purchase, and be for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 only. We intend to release on both PC and Xbox at the same time now that the Xbox testing pipeline is more advanced and established especially in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. 



We’ll be sharing much more in the coming weeks, from in-depth previews to deep dives on systems and features, and sound previews - which we are pleased to announce are being developed in collaboration with Echo19 Audio -  so be sure to stay tuned! You might wonder, why no cockpit shots? This segment is in full swing, and in the next few weeks we will go into a deeper dive into the cockpit - or should we say cockpitS? CRT's anyone? 😉 

Other Project Updates
While our focus has recently been on the A350 Airliner and A340 Airliner, we want to take a moment to update you on another major iniBuilds aircraft project that continues to progress in the background: the A380 Airliner. Whilst we do not have any previews for you at this time, we want to take the time to acknowledge this project.

A380 Airliner - Development on the iniBuilds A380 Airliner also continues steadily. Most recently, our team gained exclusive access to a full-motion A380 flight simulator, allowing us to collect a heap of new data, including performance data, systems behaviour, cockpit measurements, and other real-world procedural elements. We have also visited an aircraft in storage aiding in numerous data collection points. 



This data is proving invaluable as we refine the aircraft’s systems, handling, and flight deck functionality, helping ensure the final product delivers not just visual accuracy but also the depth and realism expected of an aircraft this complex.

The A380 represents an ambitious long-term effort, and while development evolves at a steady pace, we’re excited to bring more public updates, previews, and feature showcases as the project reaches key milestones. Who's ready for a drink at the bar at 41,000ft? 🍹

We Need Your Help!

Airliner Pilots 
With the active development of both the A340 & A380 Airliners, we’re looking to connect with real-world pilots who have experience flying these aircraft. We have a small subset already, but as we learnt with the A350 Airliner - the sooner we expand our testing set, the better the product we can deliver on launch!

If you’re a current or former A340 or A380 pilot, your insight would be invaluable in helping us fine-tune systems behavior, flight dynamics, and procedural accuracy. From subtle handling characteristics to operational quirks and airline-specific flows, the knowledge of those who’ve flown the aircraft firsthand plays a huge role in achieving the highest levels of authenticity.

If you’re interested in contributing to the development process and shaping the future of these aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to us at management@inibuilds.com with a brief overview of your experience. 

General Pilots 
If you're passionate about flight sim, but also fly a variety of planes in real life, from GA planes to turboprops, we want to hear from you!  We’re looking for skilled and detail-oriented pilots to assist with quality assurance testing across a broad range of projects.

This includes iniBuilds aircraft and beyond. Your feedback will directly help us refine product flight models, system behavior, and overall realism across the board. If this sounds like you, please reach out to us at management@inibuilds.com with a brief overview of your experience.

Plans for 2026 & Beyond

If you're a real-world pilot, aircraft owner, or have access to a specific aircraft type, we want to hear from you! Whether you're interested in bringing your aircraft into Microsoft Flight Simulator, have access to valuable flight data, or simply have strong ideas for aircraft you'd love to see us develop, we’d love to connect.

We’re always looking to expand our portfolio with high-quality, accurately modeled aircraft, and collaborations with passionate aviators and experts are at the heart of that process. From data sharing to full development partnerships, there are many ways to get involved.

If this sounds like you, please fill out the form below, we'll evaluate all submissions and if it grabs our attention, we'll reach out directly to you for further information!

Form: https://forms.inibuilds.com/suggestions

Wrapping up
As we wrap up this development update, we want to extend our thanks to each and every one of you in the iniBuilds community. This year has been one of our most exciting yet, from the launch of the highly anticipated A350 Airliner, to the release of the Spartan 7W Executive and F406 Caravan II, your support, feedback, and passion have driven everything we do.

Whether you’ve shared a bug report, posted screenshots, flown a long-haul in the A350 Airliner, or simply dropped kind words in our Discord, you’ve played a vital part in shaping the aircraft and experiences we deliver.

We remain committed to pushing the boundaries of quality and immersion in Microsoft Flight Simulator, whether that’s through refining our current products, bringing new ones like the A340 Airliner to life, or continuing development on larger long-term projects like the A380.

Thank you for being part of the journey,
iniBuilds Team ❤️