Authoritative modern jetliners in FSX

[Sunaru 12]

As the title says, what are the best simulations of modern day (and not so modern day) jetliners? I'd love for AVSIMmers to fill in the gaps here in my knowledge. Note that with "best", I mean high fidelity and -at the very least- a fully functional day-to-day operation like the Majestic Q400|Aerosoft Airbus X has for now. The ones in italics are ones I'm not sure of if there's (a better) one coming (or even out) at the moment or not.  

Airbus A320 family: Aerosoft Airbus X | Blackbox Simulation
Airbus A330: Blackbox Simulation (although I'm not sure if it's any good or not,I'd like to hear people's opinion on that)
Airbus A340: ... (is there even a developer out there planning to take on the A340?)
Airbus A350: 
Airbus A380: 
 

Boeing 737(NG): PMDG
Boeing 747: PMDG
Boeing 757: QualityWings
Boeing 767: Level-D
Boeing 777: -upcoming- PMDG

Boeing 787: -upcoming- QualityWings

 

McDonnell-Douglas MD-80: Leonardo (Fly the Maddog)
McDonnell-Douglas MD-11: PMDG

British Aerospace BAe/Avro RJ: QW
Fokker F70-F100: DigitalAviation
Fokker F50: -upcoming- McPhat
Embraer ERJ series: Wilco/FeelThere

Embraer E-Jets: Wilco/FeelThere
Bombardier CRJ series: DigitalAviation -upcoming-
Bombardier CSeries: ...
Comac C919: ...
Comac ARJ21: ...
Sukhoi Superjet 100: ...

My aim with this would be to pool information together so we could all refer to this thread and limit "which is the best ... in FSX" threads. Of course, if a thread like this already exists, this can be deleted without any problem as far as I'm concerned.  ^_^ 
 

[FloG 148]

 

 

Airbus A330: Blackbox Simulation (although I'm not sure if it's any good or not,I'd like to hear people's opinion on that)

Aerosoft are also planning on doing one after the A318/319, maybe also FSL

 

 

 

Airbus A340: ... (is there even a developer out there planning to take on the A340?)

Maybe FSL, but I'm not sure about where I read that/if that info is still valid

 

 

 

Airbus A350:

The A350 has not even flown in real life I think, so there will hardly be a serious simulation for some time, I'm sure.

 

 

 

Airbus A380:

NLS, the only one I was aware of (except the Wilco one, which seems to have loads of issues) has been cancelled, so none, unless someone's going to continue that project.

 

 

 

Boeing 777: -upcoming- PMDG

Boeing 787: -upcoming- QualityWings

Those two are definitely going to be the best simulations for the respective plane.

 

 

 

Fokker F70-F100: DigitalAviation

A great addon indeed, but it's a pity that the promised VC has never been released, so I had to stop using it in FSX. If you really want to fly a Fokker jet, you don't have any other choice, though.

 

 

 

Embraer ERJ series: Wilco

Embraer E-Jets: Wilco

Those are actually FeelThere releases, and they're the only ones available from the Embraer family.

 

 

 

Bombardier CRJ series: DigitalAviation -upcoming-

That's most likely going to be the best option when it is released (whenever that might be).

 

 

 

Bombardier CSeries: ...
Comac C919: ...
Comac ARJ21: ...
Sukhoi Superjet 100: ...

None that I'm aware of. I'd like to see some quality Russian (regional) airliners like the SSJ100, too.

[fs4fun 366]

737NG: iFly deserves mention here too

 

737-200: Milviz

 

DC9: Coolsky

 

IMO QW757 is an excellent product but I would not call it "hi-fidelity" as it's somewhat simplified and targeted to beginner-intermediate simmers.

[FloG 148]

 

 

IMO QW757 is an excellent product but I would not call it "hi-fidelity" as it's somewhat simplified and targeted to beginner-intermediate simmers.

You're absolutely right. But I find it good that this plane is here on this list, because I think it's one of the best planes for those who want ot start out flying airliners. Its simplified but yet (where necessary) accurate nature makes it a great thing on the transition from default to complex planes, therefor it deserves being on this list. It should have a seperate place, though, to highlight its sort of special position here.

[fs4fun 366]

Agreed, QW757 is a very good choice for beginners who want a stepping stone toward these more in-depth simulations, and it is a very immersive and fun product.

 

I don't have their Avro RJ but my understanding is that it's much closer to a "high-fidelity" simulation.

[Sunaru 12]

Well in all fairness, whilst I did realize (and agree) with the sentiment regarding QW's 757 being more of a "introduction to heavier stuff" and not really full-option; it's still the best option for a 757 out there. And considering the 757 is my favorite plane, I felt obliged to add it to the list. Unless anyone knows of a better 757, in which case I'm all ears!  ^_^ 

That aside, I'm eager to hear about people's opinion on the BBS A330, as well as the other planes (and which developer does them best). 

[Boeing or not going 578]

I do not know anything about Airbus systems, but it is my understanding that the BBS A320 has better system modeling than the Aerosoft, it's just not finished yet.

[SKEWR 364]

If you are doing upcoming then you should also include the FSL A320.

 

Then of course you have

The Level D 757

All the wonderful CS planes

 

[FloG 148]

 

 

All the wonderful CS planes

I would be careful with such remarks, especially in this thread, which was written with the intent to collect what is widely regarded as "the best", and seeing what nearly every single thread about CS planes turns into, I think it's not really a good idea to mention their planes here, in order to aviod the stupid "CS is great" vs. "CS is crap" discussion.

(I do have an opinion on CS, but I'd rather keep it for me in this thread)

[jetsflier 87]

BBS simulations aircraft aren't actually completed aircraft so they most certainly aren't high fidelity [at this stage in the process...]

 

There are other A330s and A340s available [CLS, Wilco, (PSS?)], which while they aren't the same complexity as say the Majestic Q400, they are the highest fidelity in comparison to the other aircraft mentioned.

[Sunaru 12]

If you are doing upcoming then you should also include the FSL A320, The Level D 757 and all the wonderful CS planes

You have a fair point on the FSL A320, but Level-D's 757 sounds like vaporware (god knows I'd like it differently, like I said, the 757 is my favorite plane) and every thread that mentions CS degrades into "they're horrible" vs "they're not that bad" discussions. I'd rather not have that discussion again. That said, it is my understanding that CS products that handle older planes (707, 727, 732, ...) are generally received better than their newer planes (757,767, 777, ...). That alone warranted not having them in.

 

 

BBS simulations aircraft aren't actually completed aircraft so they most certainly aren't high fidelity [at this stage in the process...]

 

There are other A330s and A340s available [CLS, Wilco, (PSS?)], which while they aren't the same complexity as say the Majestic Q400, they are the highest fidelity in comparison to the other aircraft mentioned.

 

How good are Wilco and CLS' offerings of the A330/A340? I'd love to have both in my hangar, my hangar seems to be very Boeing-dominated at the moment...  ^_^

[Big_Duke 11]

Just a note of reality here.  "Authoritative" does not necessarily equal "best."  Best is a subjective assessment of the user and it widely varies as can be seen by the variety of responses.  All are good to one degree or another.  Each to his/her own.  As far as I know, PMDG is the only "authoritative" developer as they have an exclusive agreement with Boeing which gives them special access to actual aircraft, engineering specs/drawings/tech documents, and access to the actual engineers who design the real deal.  In my judgment that gives them a distinct leg up on all other developers.

[FloG 148]

 

 

How good are Wilco and CLS' offerings of the A330/A340?

Wilco's are probably as good as it gets for the moment, but I think the models aren't quite as nice as most recent releases. If you care about graphical things as much as I do, you'd better skip it and wait for other developers to release theirs.

I'm not so sure about CLS, but their other planes(MD8x, 767,BAe-146) are not much more than default aircraft...

[WR269 367]

Just a note of reality here. "Authoritative" does not necessarily equal "best." Best is a subjective assessment of the user and it widely varies as can be seen by the variety of responses. All are good to one degree or another. Each to his/her own. As far as I know, PMDG is the only "authoritative" developer as they have an exclusive agreement with Boeing which gives them special access to actual aircraft, engineering specs/drawings/tech documents, and access to the actual engineers who design the real deal. In my judgment that gives them a distinct leg up on all other developers.

 

I don't think such exclusive agreement exists. I seem to recall Ryan (Tabs) from PMDG stating no such deal exists. They are a resourceful and able developer and translate what they have into their flight sim products really well.

 

[Sunaru 12]

Just a note of reality here.  "Authoritative" does not necessarily equal "best."  Best is a subjective assessment of the user and it widely varies as can be seen by the variety of responses.  All are good to one degree or another.  Each to his/her own.

Would you rather tell people to "go figure out the better developer on your own" then? All I'm trying to do is pool together which developer's rendition of each plane is considered the one most worthy of spending money on. I realise "best" is subjective, but even with that, there's no denying there are better renditions than others and some are carried much more as such. If I were to list every rendition of every plane, I'd have to add Abacus as well, and you can be sure there's at least one misguided soul that'll claim Abacus is "best" and thus, with what you said in mind, destroying the purpose of the thread. Flight Simming is already an expensive hobby, and I'm sure a thread like this can have merit to avoid bad purchases and help people along. 

 

I'm not saying all these planes are "must-buy", but it'd help people looking for XYZ to get the best rendition of XYZ on the market. Whether or not they want to buy it is up to them!