[imagesource: Microsoft]

Microsoft Flight Simulator has inspired countless people across multiple generations to take to the skies. Pilots are even known to polish their skills at home using the game.

This year, the title marks 40 years in the business and the new release will be both a celebration of modern aircraft technology as well as a throwback to days of old.

The 40th Anniversary Edition of the game will be released on November 11. For the first time since 2006, helicopters and gliders will be included, per The Verge.

Having listened to pleas from the gaming community, Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, says this year’s release will also feature “a true-to-life airliner, the sophisticated Airbus A-310 where nearly every single button works just as expected”.

Games these days really are reaching a staggering level of detail:

I’d rather play a game where I’m a cat than a game where I fly a plane but to each their own.

Aircraft history buffs are in for a treat:

[The game] also includes seven famous historical aircraft, including the largest wooden plane ever made: the 1947 Hughes H-4 Hercules.

Microsoft is also adding four classic airports, 10 glider airports, 14 heliports, and 20 classic missions from past versions of Flight Simulator. In total there are 12 new aircraft.

For an idea of how far the game has come, let’s revisit the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 trailer:

I can’t help but feel those shots of the planes flying through US cities are a little awkward, given what happened the following year.

Casting our minds even further back, this video from 2020 details the evolution of the simulator from the first release in 1982:

[source:verge]