I know in the world of train enthusiasts there are a lot of folks who love the steam era and not modern diesel or electric trains. In that vain, I know there are some very good slightly older aircraft for msfs2024 but I was wondering on people's thoughts on a complete classic flight sim. I mean not just classic aircraft but airports depicted as in years gone by, I'm thinking of the 1930's, 40's, 50's and perhaps into early 60's. Can you imagine classic aircraft done to high quality, (I know some already exist), like some of the following. Boeing 737-200, 727. Douglas DC3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and DC9, (not MD's). Convair  3,s, 4's , 5's series, 880 and 990 Coronado. De Havilland Comet, Vickers Viscount, Vanguard and VC10. Sud Aviation Caravelle, Hawker Siddeley 748, Trident and Argosy, BAC 1-11, Lockheed Constellation and Electra, I'm sure there are more you folks can think of, all done to study level if possible. All done with high quality addon airport's from back in the day. So, do we think there would be a market for such a sim or not. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Clear Skies.

Malcolm.

Edited March 8Mar 8 by rooster hancock 2003

I'd probably buy it. But I would say that you can get most of these aircraft running in the likes of P3D already. Airports are another matter, and yes, I would like to see older versions, but not necessarily back to the 30s, 1950s and 106-s would work better for my taste. 

Now if Google could get their time machine working and do the same for the whole Earth/Maps environment, we'd really be looking at something.

(and personally, study level not necessary for the aircraft - just beautifully modelled with full interiors and ideally a retro set of GSX passengers to match)

@rooster hancock 2003

A developer exists called "Red Wing" that offers a (small) range of 1930s era aircraft, and a (large; over 100 !) range of airfields, depicted as they were in 1935.

Here's a link to all of their 1930s airfields:-

https://redwing-copter.com/1935-airflieds/

 

And here's the link to their full "1935" project:

https://redwing-copter.com/menu-1935/

 

Most of their products are on the MSFS Marketplace too, if that appeals.

Edited March 8Mar 8 by JYW

Yes, interesting idea, 50's 60' early 70's era, DC-3, F-27/FH-227 (Fairchild/Fokker) Martin 404, 732, 721/2, 707's, Viscount, Convair props/880/990, etc. with proper era airports, some of this can already be had, just not in a complete sim of the era, again interesting idea.

Both the daring dreams of @rooster hancock 2003, btw like the username…🙂…, for an independent Classic Flight Simulator just as the one-time Microsoft “CFS” (replace the “C” for Combat with Classic), and the efforts of Red Wing Simulations are commendable.

I recall there was an active member in the Screenshots Forum, who was sharing pictures of vintage airport sceneries of Red Wing. I own one or two myself.

Personally, I would love to see e.g., the 1930s LaGuardia with a Pan Am Flying boat (piloted by yours truly) landing on the nearby waters, or likewise maybe 1930s Frankfurt with a Junkers 52 in action.

However, unfortunately, as @andy1252 says, we will need the Google time machine, and the blessings of MSFS, to have something at the scale (applicable scenery and aircraft included) that OP wishes for, though a most remarkable aspiration indeed.

Or if it ever happens, it will be well past my own (active) SIM life…🙂…

Edited March 8Mar 8 by P_7878

For a reminder of what was done earlier (FS9 & FSX), you might take a look at California Classics. This was an absolutely wonderful experience of the sort that you are proposing. This was probably easier to do in the FS9 environment where the expectations of aircraft and scenery models were lower and more of the experience was left to the simmer’s imagination. But perhaps an inspiration for today.

This would be completely awesome - especially if built with selectable retro AI traffic.

I’m the guy who literally reads old OAG schedules and buys every 146, MD-82, 727, etc because I’m Age 50 and actually remember riding on these birds - and always feel a little weird and “anachronistic” about coming down to land at a modern day KBFI in an Alaska 727 - in an old livery, no less.

I also study railroad history AND use Trainz 22 where it’s very easy to switch eras - so I DO.  Even then it’s a pain to switch all the assets over from a modern KFC to a 1970s KFC with a proper chicken bucket on a pole for its sign…but it CAN be done! 

Call me someone who lives in the past, but for trains or airliners or music I sort of DO live in the past and would love a bolt on era changer!

 

 

Hi Guys. I appreciate your replies. I know it's wishful thinking but wouldn't it be great to have those California Classics done to msfs2024 standards!

There are 70s' Euro nav/airport add-on for XP and IIRC 40s for continental USA as well?

Back in 2000s I would like to have a fixed cycle at time because I'm too broke to subscript anything, but ended up find that it's even easier to sync everything by up to date rather than lock to a given time... not sure if it could also be true for those retro data 

On 3/8/2026 at 12:34 AM, rooster hancock 2003 said:

I know in the world of train enthusiasts there are a lot of folks who love the steam era and not modern diesel or electric trains. In that vain, I know there are some very good slightly older aircraft for msfs2024 but I was wondering on people's thoughts on a complete classic flight sim. I mean not just classic aircraft but airports depicted as in years gone by, I'm thinking of the 1930's, 40's, 50's and perhaps into early 60's. Can you imagine classic aircraft done to high quality, (I know some already exist), like some of the following. Boeing 737-200, 727. Douglas DC3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and DC9, (not MD's). Convair  3,s, 4's , 5's series, 880 and 990 Coronado. De Havilland Comet, Vickers Viscount, Vanguard and VC10. Sud Aviation Caravelle, Hawker Siddeley 748, Trident and Argosy, BAC 1-11, Lockheed Constellation and Electra, I'm sure there are more you folks can think of, all done to study level if possible. All done with high quality addon airport's from back in the day. So, do we think there would be a market for such a sim or not. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Clear Skies.

Malcolm.

Too much work for too little return, methinks. I.e., not enough customers for a ground up rebuild.

what might fly (pun intended) would be a series of retro airports. Which, IIRC, is somewhat of a thing here and there. 

there’s also the need for retro traffic and retro nav aids. 

and finally, the various flight sims and regional sceneries usually take their anthrogenic data from current sources, so it’d be extremely time consuming to generate retro urban areas and such. 

Would be cool to have a historical slider that affected the entire sim and not just the weather, eh…? 😎

Redwing in msfs2020 gives you old planes, old airports. You have to disable in the marketplace the modern airports from msfs2020 to avoid conflicts. I used Addon Linker in msfs2020 to do that. Addonlinker 2020 can be set up to run assets in and out of community AND in and out of official. But the two addonlinker folders have to be separate which means one is not underneath the other in the folder structure. 

such as you can use C:/addon and C:/officialAddon: this is where you put the asset folders (the planes and scenery and utilities). You cannot use for instance C:/addon and c:/addon/offiical because one path is underneath the other path. 

When you boot up addonlinker app go to the Advanced tab and tell addon linker that you want the assets in C:/officialAddon to be run in and out of Official instead of in and out of community. Exactly like when you first installed addonlinker you told it to run files in and out of community. 

After you do this step, then when you click on an asset in addonlinker that asset will go into community or into official. 

The above procedure is way easier than using msfs2020 to download and delete assets. Addon linker doesn't delete nor download assets so it is way way quicker, seconds instead of minutes. Addon linker just changes links.

Anyway, I put all modern 2020 airports that were the same airport as the Redwing 1930's airports into one folder in addonlinker. When I click it, then the modern versions are in the game on the next bootup of msfs2020. Click it again and they are gone. Of course I dumped all the Redwing 1930's versions into another folder. 

Before flying I clicked one folder and unclicked the other folder. And then when 2020 booted up, I was flying in the modern era or the 1930's. No conflicts. And no waiting for downloads or deletions because there was not any. Just links were changed by Addonlinker.