When FlightFX revealed the Hawker 800XP on September 8, the plane was on sale inside a day. The one warning was a single cryptic teaser three days earlier, which hinted that the thriller plane was neither of the 2 jets the studio had already proven in public. No months of preview screenshots, no lengthy function debates, only a completed midsize enterprise jet arriving on the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Marketplace. In a passion the place most plane are introduced a 12 months or extra earlier than anybody can fly them, that alone made it one of many extra uncommon launches of 2026.
These two different jets say quite a bit in regards to the distinction. FlightFX first teased its Challenger 350 back in 2024 and introduced the ERJ 145 in early 2025, sharing in-sim previews of both alongside the way in which. The Hawker, in the meantime, was being constructed nearly fully out of sight.
The plane has held up extraordinarily properly since. Our full review of the Hawker 800XP discovered a deep, demanding jet that rewards examine, and FlightFX has saved the fixes coming, together with a version 1.6 update that took on a number of neighborhood requests, a few of them ours. The studio’s older jets haven’t been left behind both. The Quotation X received a sweeping V2 overhaul in August, and on October 15 version 2.3.0 adopted with a efficiency cross aimed toward decreasing CPU load.
So we caught up with Nick Sdoucos, FlightFX’s CEO, to listen to his ideas. A number of of our questions had been in regards to the Hawker, however most had been in regards to the enterprise behind it: why the studio went quiet, why it sells solely via the Market, whether or not anybody could make a residing doing this, and the way it feels to construct on a platform another person owns.
Some solutions stood out. Sdoucos confirms that FlightFX works with Microsoft as a second-party developer, and he describes the Market-only technique as a part of an enormous partnership with Microsoft, supported by the studio’s personal gross sales knowledge. The Hawker itself launched as a part of Microsoft’s “Exclusive Series”. That relationship goes again some time: FlightFX’s Imaginative and prescient Jet grew to become a default plane in MSFS 2024 after Cirrus requested for it to be included and Microsoft reached a take care of the studio, as we reported in 2024.
On the Market’s free-trial function, which we called one of MSFS 2024’s most consumer-friendly tools earlier this 12 months, Sdoucos says FlightFX plans to experiment. The fascinating half is how. He sees trials much less as a launch instrument and extra as a method to convey consideration again to an older plane or a significant replace.
He additionally stops wanting promising one other shock launch. The response was constructive, he says, however FlightFX will let the gross sales knowledge determine. And in keeping with Sdoucos, the Hawker has turn out to be a proving floor for programs and workflows that may carry into the studio’s future initiatives.
Not each query received a pointed reply. Our questions on Market exclusivity and platform dependence drew measured, diplomatic replies, which might be to be anticipated from a studio this intently tied to Microsoft. There’s nonetheless lots right here, together with a agency rebuttal of our description of the Hawker as a “quirky outdated British twin.”
FlightFX additionally shared just a few pictures of the folks behind the studio, from airport arrivals to group dinners and at the very least one questionable alternative of headwear. You’ll discover them all through the interview.
The interview has been calmly edited for readability and size.
FlightFX, the studio
Let’s begin with the fundamentals for readers who don’t know you properly. Inform us about FlightFX, the place the studio got here from, and the place you wish to take it from right here.
FlightFX grew out of a bunch of people that love aviation and simulation, and who wished to see how far an plane might be pushed inside Microsoft Flight Simulator.
We began as a a lot smaller group, and like most builders on this area, we discovered by doing. Each venture taught us one thing about programs, 3D, flight modeling, sound, and consumer expertise, and above all how these disciplines have to come back collectively so an plane feels convincing fairly than merely wanting convincing.
The Imaginative and prescient Jet established who we’re and the form of merchandise we wish to make. The Quotation X took us a lot deeper into complicated enterprise aviation, the Avanti allow us to sort out one thing utterly completely different, and the Hawker is one other large step ahead in how we strategy programs, modularity, immersion, and growth as a complete.
Alongside the way in which, we’ve additionally had the privilege of working with Microsoft as a second-party developer. That was a major milestone for the corporate and we’re grateful for the belief it represents. But it surely hasn’t modified our elementary aim, which is to construct airplanes we might be excited to personal and fly ourselves.
The place we go from right here is about maturity, not measurement. Greater doesn’t essentially imply higher. We wish to maintain getting higher on the complete course of: growth requirements, instruments, testing, documentation, communication, and in the end consistency from one plane to the subsequent.
On the identical time, we wish to shield the character of the corporate as we develop. We take accuracy and constancy very critically, however flight simulation is meant to be enjoyable. The expertise ought to be one thing folks genuinely look ahead to spending time with.
FlightFX’s catalog is extra diverse than it could have a look at first. After serving to Marwan Gharib convey his HJet to the sim (it returned in MSFS 2024 form in February), the studio launched the Vision Jet in 2022, adopted by the Piaggio P.180 Avanti and the Citation X in 2025.
In just a few years you’ve put out the Imaginative and prescient Jet, the Quotation X, a turboprop just like the Avanti, and now a unusual outdated British twin. Past the plain industrial facet, is there a throughline to what FlightFX chooses to construct, or is it extra a case of constructing regardless of the group is worked up about on the time?
There’s undoubtedly a throughline, even when the plane look fairly completely different on paper.
We’re drawn to airplanes with a powerful id. That may come from the way in which they give the impression of being, the way in which they function, the programs they use, or the position they occupy in aviation. We aren’t at all times attempting to construct the obvious plane, however we’re in search of character and for one thing significant to discover from a growth standpoint.
That doesn’t must imply obscure. The Hawker is an efficient instance. It’s one of the crucial extensively flown enterprise jets on the planet, with an infinite quantity of historical past and familiarity round it. What us was the possibility to recreate an plane that so many pilots, operators, and fanatics know properly, at a degree we felt it deserved.
There’s additionally a sensible facet. We glance intently at entry to the plane, documentation, pilots, producers, and technical assets, and at whether or not we will realistically help the extent of constancy we would like. An plane could be very interesting, but when we will’t get the data or entry we’d like, that turns into a deciding issue.
And the group’s enthusiasm issues. These initiatives take months of concentrated work, and real pleasure in regards to the airplane carries via the whole growth cycle.
So it’s a mix of character, entry, technical alternative, industrial actuality, and enthusiasm. We’re in search of plane the place all of these line up and the place we will convey one thing worthwhile to the simulator.
The Hawker
Going to the true plane has been a FlightFX behavior for years, from a two-day visit to an Avanti in North Carolina to recording the Citation X’s sounds with audio engineer Boris Vanian. The Hawker adopted the identical path.
Take us via the Hawker’s growth historical past, from the very first work on it to launch.
The Hawker all began with entry. By means of a longtime contact, we had been provided the chance to get hands-on with an 800XP in Birmingham, Alabama, and we knew straight away it was price pursuing.
We performed a full survey of the plane. We photographed and measured it extensively, recorded its audio, and scanned key elements so we had correct reference materials as soon as growth started. That form of entry makes an infinite distinction. You’re not recreating an plane from manuals and images alone. You’ll be able to stand inside it, see how issues match collectively, perceive the supplies, hear it function, and seize particulars that may in any other case be straightforward to overlook.
Simply as necessary was entry to the individuals who know the airplane. We labored intently with a number of Hawker pilots all through growth. They helped us confirm how programs behave, however greater than that, they helped us perceive how the plane is definitely flown each day: the flows, the quirks, and the small particulars that give an airplane its character.
The venture had a considerably uncommon path. We began quietly, made significant progress, after which paused whereas different priorities moved ahead. By the point we returned to it, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 had opened up new capabilities, and we made the choice to take full benefit of them fairly than merely decide up the place we left off.
That meant rebuilding some parts of the plane, nevertheless it was the precise name. We had been capable of design across the newer platform, our personal up to date inner requirements, and classes discovered on different FlightFX merchandise, and the result’s a a lot stronger plane.
Our aim was to pack in as a lot authenticity as we moderately might. Having the bodily plane, skilled pilots, and the backing of an formally licensed product gave us a really robust basis. The Hawker has additionally turn out to be a proving floor for programs, workflows, and growth practices that may carry ahead into future FlightFX initiatives.
You saved this plane nearly fully below wraps for years, which works in opposition to the grain in an business that often runs on fixed teasers and hype. What was behind that call to remain quiet, and do you propose to take the identical strategy once more?
We merely wished to attempt one thing completely different with the launch.
It’s frequent in flight simulation to start out speaking a few venture very early and maintain that dialog going for months. There’s nothing fallacious with that strategy, however we had been curious what would occur if we went the opposite approach and saved the plane below wraps till it was prepared.
One of many much less apparent advantages is that individuals didn’t have time to type preconceived notions earlier than they might expertise the plane. There was no lengthy buildup of screenshots, function debates, or expectations set months upfront. The product might stand by itself and be judged for what it really is.
The response has been fascinating. Lots of people advised us they genuinely loved the shock, and there was one thing refreshing about revealing a completed product. It’s nonetheless early to attract agency conclusions on the industrial facet, so we’ll let the info information whether or not this turns into our commonplace strategy.
Internally, it was a whole lot of enjoyable having a venture within the constructing that no person might discuss. It additionally gave the group room to experiment and make choices with out each step taking place in public, and a few of what got here out of that freedom is already feeding into future initiatives.
So I’m glad we tried it, and we’ll take what we be taught from the Hawker into how we launch no matter comes subsequent.
Our subsequent query was intentionally a little bit provocative. Sdoucos didn’t let it slide.
Of all of the enterprise jets you might have dedicated years to, you picked a Sixties-lineage British twinjet fairly than the Gulfstreams, Embraers or Cessnas that have a tendency to attract larger crowds. What made the Hawker price it?
Properly… the TL;DR model of this reply is that the Hawker is something however an outdated plane. There are a whole lot of them in service as we communicate, and we wished to develop the sim’s enterprise jet fleet with one of the crucial generally seen enterprise jets at your native FBO.
It’s true that the lineage does return to the Sixties, however the era we’re speaking about and constructed is far more up to date. The 800XP arrived within the mid-Nineties, the 850XP adopted in 2006, and the 900XP carried the household via the tip of manufacturing in 2012. There are Hawkers flying in the present day which might be youthful than loads of airliners nonetheless carrying passengers.
And there are a whole lot of them. The 800 collection alone handed 800 deliveries by 2006, and manufacturing continued properly past that with the 850XP and 900XP. A whole bunch of those plane are nonetheless in service around the globe.
So this isn’t an obscure enterprise jet. It’s one of many workhorses of enterprise aviation. Spend time round a busy FBO, notably in North America, and there’s an excellent likelihood you’ll see one. They fly company, constitution, medical transport, and numerous different missions, and so they’re nonetheless doing that work in the present day.
That real-world familiarity was an enormous a part of the enchantment. Pilots comprehend it, operators comprehend it, and lots of people have flown on it.
In flight simulation we naturally gravitate towards the latest, quickest, or most unique airplane. The Hawker has a special form of enchantment: historical past, character, distinctive dealing with, and a real-world footprint a lot bigger than many individuals understand. For us, it was about giving one of many staples of enterprise aviation the illustration it deserves.
When FlightFX first unveiled the Citation X in 2024, it stated it additionally deliberate to launch the X+. We wished to know the way these decisions get made.
You have a tendency to construct particular variants, the 800XP fairly than the 850, the Quotation X fairly than the X+. What really goes into selecting one specific variant over one other whenever you decide to a venture?
The straightforward reply is that these had been the plane we had entry to.
For the Quotation X, the plane we had been capable of survey was a normal Quotation X. For the Hawker, it was an 800XP, in order that grew to become the idea for the venture.
Entry is central to how we develop. If we will get contained in the plane, {photograph} and measure it, scan elements, report audio, and work with pilots who know that particular airplane, that carries way more weight than selecting a variant as a result of it appears higher on a function listing.
The Hawker bolstered that. The 800XP we surveyed had its personal quirks, together with a special sofa place and several other different inside variations. There’s a saying within the Hawker neighborhood: “When you’ve seen one Hawker, you’ve seen one Hawker.”
That turned out to be very true. These plane have been in service lengthy sufficient that homeowners have made modifications over time, and there have been many manufacturing unit configurations to start with. Two examples can have a lot much less in frequent than you’d anticipate.
So after we say we modeled an 800XP or a Quotation X, we’re actually modeling a selected real-world instance. Having the ability to faithfully reproduce what’s in entrance of us issues extra to us than chasing a specific variant title.
Being a developer
Can anybody really make a residing constructing high-fidelity plane at this degree, or is it nonetheless largely ardour work propped up by day jobs?
I can’t communicate for different builders as a result of circumstances fluctuate a lot. Some studios are doing very properly, and others have moved on over time. Numerous that comes right down to market forces, group measurement, overhead, venture choice, effectivity, and whether or not the fervour continues to be there.
At FlightFX, we now have a mixture. Some folks work on this full-time, some part-time, and a few contribute as a result of they genuinely get pleasure from being a part of the neighborhood and serving to make the merchandise higher.
It’s in all probability nonetheless true that many individuals on this business have a profession alongside simulation growth. However that doesn’t imply the event work is a passion.
You’ll be able to have two jobs.
If somebody spends the day in one other business after which places critical, disciplined effort into plane growth, the product isn’t any much less skilled for it. You’ll be able to nonetheless have correct venture administration, high quality requirements, testing, schedules, and accountability.
So sure, it’s potential to make a residing doing this, and a few builders do. The necessary distinction isn’t whether or not it’s somebody’s solely job. It’s how critically they deal with the job once they’re doing it.
Piracy will get talked about continually and hardly quantified. Does that actuality change what you construct, the way you help it, or the way you worth and distribute?
Piracy is a actuality for nearly any software program enterprise, and each developer approaches it otherwise. For us, it has by no means been what drives our product, pricing, or distribution choices.
Our deal with the Market comes right down to distribution and help.
The Market is constructed immediately into the simulator, and it’s the place the overwhelming majority of our prospects already are. From an operational standpoint, that makes it the only and most effective place for us to ship our merchandise.
Each extra channel provides complexity. Every replace needs to be packaged, delivered, tracked, and maintained throughout a number of shops. On the help facet, earlier than you may diagnose somebody’s drawback, you might first must work out the place they purchased the plane and which model they’re working. For a group our measurement, that provides up shortly.
Centralized distribution offers us a lot better management. Once we ship an replace, we all know what model our prospects ought to be on, and that makes growth, testing, help, and communication far simpler.
There’s additionally a easy customer-facing motive. We wish to be the place our prospects are and provides them essentially the most constant expertise we will. I do know some folks locally favor different storefronts, and I utterly respect that. However for FlightFX, assembly prospects contained in the simulator is what makes essentially the most sense.
FlightFX’s current plane, the Hawker included, have all launched as Market exclusives, so we put the query to Sdoucos immediately.
The Quotation X launched as a Market unique. From a developer’s facet, how do you weigh the trade-offs of Market exclusivity in opposition to promoting direct or via third-party shops? Put bluntly, is the unique mannequin genuinely good for builders?
Each studio has to determine what works greatest for its enterprise, its merchandise, and the way in which it helps prospects. There are builders who’re very proud of their very own storefronts or with third-party shops, and we now have good relationships with a lot of these corporations. They’re an necessary a part of this neighborhood.
For FlightFX, the Market is a part of a broader partnership with Microsoft, and it’s a partnership that works very properly for us and for our prospects.
The sensible benefits of a single main channel are important. Realizing there’s one present model of a product locally makes help and troubleshooting dramatically simpler. It removes the uncertainty round the place somebody purchased the plane, which construct they’re working, and whether or not an replace has really reached them.
It additionally strains up with what we see within the knowledge. We’re a really data-driven and logistics-driven firm, and our numbers inform us clearly that the Market is the place our prospects are.
So is it good for builders? It’s been superb for us. Each studio’s state of affairs is completely different, however for FlightFX, the mixture of a powerful partnership, buyer attain, simplified distribution, clear model management, and simpler help makes the Market the precise dwelling for our plane.
Again in January, we counted only 74 of the 3,245 add-ons within the MSFS 2024 Market providing a free trial.
MSFS 2024 added a free-trial function for Market merchandise. Why not make the most of it?
It’s a function we like, and it’s very a lot on our listing to discover.
What’s fascinating to me is that it doesn’t must be a launch instrument. I can see actual worth in utilizing it mid-cycle. A trial might be a good way to reintroduce an plane to individuals who could have missed it the primary time, or to construct contemporary visibility round a significant replace.
We haven’t constructed it right into a launch but, however I totally anticipate we’ll experiment with it, and I feel it’s a sensible addition to the platform.
You’re in the end constructing on a platform that one firm controls. What occurs to a FlightFX plane when a platform replace breaks it, and the way uncovered do you are feeling to choices you may’t affect? And associated to that, in 2024 your prospects’ plane partly rely on infrastructure you don’t personal. Does that fear you as a builder?
I don’t actually have a look at it as constructing on a platform one firm controls. I have a look at it as constructing on a platform that everyone needs to be a part of.
That’s an necessary distinction.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is an ecosystem. Builders, producers, pilots, creators, {hardware} corporations, prospects, and Microsoft are all taking part in it. Like several residing platform, it evolves, and a part of our job is evolving with it.
Virtually each enterprise operates on infrastructure it doesn’t totally management. An airline doesn’t personal the airports it flies into, air site visitors management, the climate, or the gas provide chain. That doesn’t cease it from working an airline. You perceive your working setting, plan for what you may management, and adapt when issues change.
Software program growth isn’t any completely different.
When a simulator replace impacts one among our plane, we deal with it like every other problem: determine it shortly, talk clearly with prospects, and ship a repair. Sim updates are typically accessible for testing forward of launch, which helps us get forward of most points earlier than prospects ever see them.
And actually, I wouldn’t wish to personal each a part of the method. The fee and complexity of constructing the entire infrastructure, distribution, and companies ourselves can be prohibitive. One of many largest advantages of being half of a bigger platform is the big ecosystem round us that we don’t must recreate.
Possibly that dependency frightened me after we first began, however that’s partly since you don’t know any higher but. Right now I sleep high quality, I nonetheless make it to my daughter’s soccer video games, and we take care of no matter comes up the subsequent day.
What issues isn’t having an ideal setting. No one has that. What issues is how shortly you perceive an issue, how properly you talk it, and the way successfully you reply. You management what you may management, you reply to what you may’t, and you retain shifting.
The neighborhood could be intense: assessment scores, wishlists, the fixed “when’s it popping out.” How do you determine when that suggestions is price performing on, and when to carry your line?
That is one among my favourite questions, as a result of there’s an necessary a part of it that always will get neglected.
Flight simulation is a worldwide neighborhood, and nearly all of our communication occurs in writing. That strips out a whole lot of tone and context. A remark that sounds harsh could have come from somebody who has simply spent two hours attempting to get one thing to work. Retaining that in thoughts makes the depth a lot simpler to deal with.
Language and tradition play a task too. Communication types fluctuate a terrific deal around the globe, and in case you learn each message via your individual cultural lens, you may assign an emotional tone the author by no means supposed. We’ve turn out to be far more conscious of that over time.
We put an amazing quantity of effort into our Discord neighborhood, and for essentially the most half it’s a really civil place. We attempt to give somebody who’s annoyed the identical respect we’d give anybody else. You don’t have any thought what sort of day that particular person had earlier than they typed that message.
And I perceive the frustration. Everybody has purchased one thing that didn’t work the way in which they anticipated. Individuals must really feel heard. They should know somebody is their drawback, that we care, and that we’ll do our greatest to assist.
Deciding what to behave on is extra analytical. We search for patterns. Are a number of folks seeing it? Can we reproduce it? Is it really our plane? How extreme is it? Would the change make the plane extra correct or enhance the expertise for the broader buyer base?
That issues as a result of each buyer’s simulator is a little bit completely different. Individuals produce other plane, surroundings, utilities, {hardware}, bindings, and add-ons put in, and typically a difficulty that appears prefer it’s ours seems to be an interplay with one thing else on the system. That’s the flip facet of an open, wealthy ecosystem, and it’s an enormous a part of why we make investments so closely in help and diagnostics.
We’ve been lucky to earn robust assessment scores throughout our merchandise, and I’m very happy with that. It displays the care the group places into every thing we construct. However you additionally must keep away from letting any single assessment, remark, or wishlist merchandise dictate the path of the product.
If I might wave a magic wand, I’d repair two issues.
First, I’d ensure that everybody knew there are actual folks behind these merchandise who care deeply about them. Our builders will keep up all evening after a launch chasing down an issue as a result of they need the expertise to be proper. These plane are their craft, and when somebody has a foul expertise, they take it personally.
Second, I’d remove compatibility conflicts. I’d love for each plane to reside in a world the place nothing else put in might intrude with it.
So the steadiness is to pay attention rigorously, deal with folks with respect, examine every thing we moderately can, after which use knowledge and judgment to determine what wants to vary. You need the neighborhood serving to make the product higher, however you additionally must know when to carry the road on what the product is supposed to be.
When you might take one factor again, which FlightFX product or determination would it not be, and what would you do otherwise?
That’s a tough one, as a result of I don’t actually have a look at the corporate that approach.
There are actually choices we’d deal with otherwise in the present day. But it surely’s laborious to separate any single venture from every thing that got here out of it.
Each venture teaches you one thing about growth, manufacturing, advertising and marketing, help, pricing, or how your group works collectively, and people classes compound over time.
That doesn’t imply we don’t retro on our work. We completely do. However there’s a distinction between studying from a choice and wishing it by no means occurred, and there’s nothing within the FlightFX story I’d wish to erase.
Trying outward, the place do you suppose third-party MSFS growth is heading over the subsequent few years, and is there something about that path that worries you?
I feel we’re at a extremely fascinating level, as a result of a lot has already been constructed.
Over the past a number of years, the neighborhood and Microsoft have created an unimaginable ecosystem and, in some ways, a whole digital world. There’s an enormous vary of airports, surroundings, and plane accessible now. There are nonetheless loads of airplanes left to construct and areas of aviation that stay underrepresented, however the panorama is way extra mature than it was when MSFS 2020 launched.
What retains that ecosystem contemporary is the continued evolution of the simulator itself. Each step ahead in graphics, processing, programs, and growth instruments creates new alternatives for builders. An plane constructed early within the platform’s life can look very completely different whenever you revisit it with higher instruments, extra functionality, and every thing you’ve discovered since. The Hawker is an efficient instance of what that may seem like.
It additionally offers folks a motive to come back again.
I feel there’ll at all times be two broad components to the flight simulation viewers. There are people who find themselves utterly hooked on aviation, whether or not they’re pilots, critical fanatics, or individuals who’ve had the bug their complete lives. They’ll be right here regardless.
Then there’s a extra informal viewers who uncover the simulator as a result of one thing caught their consideration and should not have caught the aviation bug but. New know-how, new visuals, and new experiences give these folks a motive to take one other look.
We’d like each teams. New folks getting into the ecosystem are what maintain it wholesome and rising for builders, creators, and everybody else concerned.
As for what’s subsequent, I’ll depart the roadmap to Microsoft. What I can say is that I’m way more excited than frightened. The fascinating half is seeing what comes subsequent, who it brings into the neighborhood, and the way we as builders rise to satisfy it.
And to shut, of every thing FlightFX has finished for Microsoft Flight Simulator up to now, what are you most happy with?
The individuals who work with and for FlightFX and its military of volunteers.
We discuss this internally fairly a bit. I’m extremely happy with how passionate this group is and the way invested they’re within the high quality of what we make.
I’m surrounded by individuals who care.
Typically meaning robust opinions, disagreements, or obstacles we now have to work via. However these exist as a result of somebody cares deeply in regards to the outcome: whether or not a system works appropriately, whether or not one thing appears proper, whether or not the client expertise is nice sufficient, and whether or not we’re placing out one thing that represents the corporate the way in which we would like.
That form of dedication isn’t one thing you should purchase off the shelf. You’ll be able to rent expertise, enhance processes, and construct higher instruments, however a bunch of people that take real private satisfaction of their work is way tougher to create.
Greater than any single plane or milestone, that’s what I’m most happy with. FlightFX has turn out to be a spot full of people that care deeply about what they’re constructing and in regards to the folks they’re constructing it for.
Our due to Nick Sdoucos and the entire FlightFX group for taking the time to reply our questions in such element, and for the pictures. The FlightFX Hawker 800XP is offered now, completely on the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Market.