The blurring of the line

by mark.avey on July 31, 2007

It’s a very interesting time to be involved in flight simulation. One thing I’ve really noticed recently is the blurring of the line between commercial and “fun” simulators. We’ve recently seen Cirrus using X-Plane to effectively demo their new personal jet, and now Wilco have made an announcement that “Belgian’s Defense 15th Wing Air Transport now uses feelThere/Wilco ERJ 145 Pilot in Command for flight deck procedures teaching to pilots.”. There are also other examples of this kind.

This is fantastic news for all of us as fans of flight simulation. Now that “personal” simulators are starting to get used by professionals (I know they almost always have been to some extent, but not to the degree they are now), I can see add-on developers adding even more realism to already great products. They effectively now have two markets. They have a huge market of dedicated fans, but also a small, but potentially very lucrative market of commercial entities using their add-ons for real-world training.

I think it’s going to be a fun ride - enjoy the flight