Hi there!

Have you always wanted to build your own airport? I know I have. I've always had the dream - like I imagine a lot of you do - to build an airport in my backyard, buy a plane, and live out my days as a bush pilot explorin' the world. Yeah, exactly like Trent Palmer. No, I'm not jealous. 😂

My name is McCrackenAir - you might know me from the original SayIntentions.AI team. If you've been wondering where I've been, I took a step back from flight sim to regain my passion for simming. Bought a small farmstead, took up homesteading, and I guess own chickens now? It's a beautiful spot, and I think constantly about having a full runway out my door - unfortunately that'll never happen. So I built it in MSFS. Wanted to share it with a friend, but that was a pain in the A**. He wanted to build his own as well - definitely not happening with his skills.

Well, that pain birthed an idea: a way to get these airports synced together. Then came the idea for a simple editor for him to use. And then another idea, and another… until it became what we're publishing today. An extremely feature rich easy to use airport builder/editor, that'll let you build the airport of your dreams. We definitely got carried away. Way too much to fit into this opening post.

Claim your land, Design an airport anywhere on Earth, and it builds into MSFS - automatically synced so you and your friends all land at the exact same place, exactly the same way. Extremely simple to use, and can take less than a few minutes to build an airport.

https://projectairports.com/

This has been a project 2 years in the making. We would love to now open it up to anyone reading to make an account, design your own airport, and share it with the world.

We do have a supporter package available for folks who'd like to see this project grow. Goals include moveable hangar doors, larger airport types (think international airports), working jetways, and just increasing the amount of available models.

Any feedback here, or on Discord, would be welcomed.

Full editor demo available here: https://projectairports.com/demo

Cheers!

Justice McCracken
Creator of Project Airports

AI Disclaimer: No AI generated 3D models have been used in this project. AI is not used for voiceovers, acting, or any impersonation of any career professionals. AI was used in some aspects of coding and client development.

Edited July 4Jul 4 by McCrackenAir

5 minutes ago, McCrackenAir said:

Hi there!

Have you always wanted to build your own airport? I know I have. I've always had the dream - like I imagine a lot of you do - to build an airport in my backyard, buy a plane, and live out my days as a bush pilot explorin' the world. Yeah, exactly like Trent Palmer. No, I'm not jealous. 😂

My name is McCrackenAir - you might know me from the original SayIntentions.AI team. If you've been wondering where I've been, I took a step back from flight sim to regain my passion for simming. Bought a small farmstead, took up homesteading, and I guess own chickens now? It's a beautiful spot, and I think constantly about having a full runway out my door - unfortunately that'll never happen. So I built it in MSFS. Wanted to share it with a friend, but that was a pain in the A**. He wanted to build his own as well - definitely not happening with his skills.

Well, that pain birthed an idea: a way to get these airports synced together. Then came the idea for a simple editor for him to use. And then another idea, and another… until it became what we're publishing today. An extremely feature rich easy to use airport builder/editor, that'll let you build the airport of your dreams. We definitely got carried away. Way too much to fit into this opening post.

Claim your land, Design an airport anywhere on Earth, and it builds into MSFS - automatically synced so you and your friends all land at the exact same place, exactly the same way. Extremely simple to use, and can take less than a few minutes to build an airport.

https://projectairports.com/

This has been a project 2 years in the making. We would love to now open it up to anyone reading to make an account, design your own airport, and share it with the world.

We do have a supporter package available for folks who'd like to see this project grow. Goals include moveable hangar doors, larger airport types (think international airports), working jetways, and just increasing the amount of available models.

Any feedback here, or on Discord, would be welcomed.

Full editor demo available here: https://projectairports.com/demo

Cheers!

Justice McCracken
Creator of Project Airports

AI Disclaimer: No AI generated 3D models have been used in this project. AI is not used for voiceovers, acting, or any impersonation of any career professionals. AI was used in some aspects of coding and client development.

Interesting concept...kind of reminds me of the Airport tool in the FS2K days, but more advanced obviously. Just a question, is the idea to build on a selected tile, not necessarily modify/override an existing airport as the default SDK does?

Just now, Nandengo12 said:

Interesting concept...kind of reminds me of the Airport tool in the FS2K days, but more advanced obviously. Just a question, is the idea to build on a selected tile, not necessarily modify/override an existing airport as the default SDK does?

Thanks! That tool was before my time, but yeah similar in concept. You're correct, the idea is to claim a tile and build on the selected location - not take over any existing airports. In fact, it's not perfect, but I have a majority of airports (and national parks) blocked off so you can't claim land near them.

Now THIS is a new utility to get excited about!

5 hours ago, JYW said:

Now THIS is a new utility to get excited about!

Hey thanks! I think it's pretty neat. Over 30 builder going at it already - covering 10 US states, and 12 countries!

Few updates since launch - the first directly thanks to our first supporters. Huge thanks guys.

Changed maps provider, which gave us a 3D globe/terrain layer to use in the claims map and airport editor areas! Makes choosing a good spot far easier. And looks hella cool!

https://projectairports.com/explore

Finally got windsocks working - few variants to choose from - as well as country flags. Stiff objects in the editor, but will be dynamic objects in the sim.

Newly placed taxiways will now generate hold short points and signs. Working on building this out to support more complex placements.

If you're still on the fence about the project - you should know someone already claimed Disney World. Don't miss your chance to build somewhere cool too!

Edited Monday at 09:18 AM4 days by McCrackenAir

How interesting! I shall definitely try this out - I already have a location in mind.

Does this work with 2020 ?

6 hours ago, Paul K said:

How interesting! I shall definitely try this out - I already have a location in mind.

Thank you! Please feel free to stop by the discord and show off some pics when done!

2 hours ago, DaveH said:

Does this work with 2020 ?

Unfortunately not, we're able to keep each airport file tiny in 2024 by utilizing streamed assets from Asobo. These assets aren't all available in 2020. For consistency, just decided to keep it 2024 only 🙂

Hey this looks pretty neat! I have a couple questions after taking a look at the website/demo before I sign up:

Can you explain a bit about the monetization here? I see you need some kind of currency to build your airport with, presumably you get a starter amount, then it says you generate more as you fly and also as people land at your airport. Given the low player base at the start of a project like this, I would assume your own airport is not going to be making you a lot of this currency, as there's a very very slim chance of someone other than you landing there. So I assume then, like most microtransaction driven projects, that if I want to build something more than a single dirt runway with a single taxiway, I'd be expected to pay real dollars to exchange for in game currency? Or otherwise grind up the currency needed by flying around to other peoples built airports?

I really like the concept, but I noticed some of the player created airports just pave right over existing subdivisions, highways, etc without any scrutiny or attempt to blend; that's a little jarring to me, and I am wondering how easy it is to turn off other players airports from spawning if you don't like the look or placement of them?

This is obviously a free flight thing - just checking that it doesn't interfere with/turns itself off if you are doing career mode? There's enough bugs there already lol

3 hours ago, Kristofski said:

Hey this looks pretty neat! I have a couple questions after taking a look at the website/demo before I sign up:

Can you explain a bit about the monetization here? I see you need some kind of currency to build your airport with, presumably you get a starter amount, then it says you generate more as you fly and also as people land at your airport. Given the low player base at the start of a project like this, I would assume your own airport is not going to be making you a lot of this currency, as there's a very very slim chance of someone other than you landing there. So I assume then, like most microtransaction driven projects, that if I want to build something more than a single dirt runway with a single taxiway, I'd be expected to pay real dollars to exchange for in game currency? Or otherwise grind up the currency needed by flying around to other peoples built airports?

Hey, thanks! It's been a ton of fun already.

Monetization - I'm deathly afraid of adding a way to pay for currency, at least at the current stage. This economy has to be tested, broken, and fixed dozens of times before I'll feel comfortable adding that. I've been around gaming a long time, I've witnessed some horror stories regarding in game economies. I do understand those who would like to jump into the full experience without having to grind, and for those, perhaps paid currency options closer to the 1.0 release.

There's a passive currency backing the project - but you won't need to do anything different than you already do to earn it. When I created this for myself, one of my goals was to create a system that rewarded getting on and flying (I'd get a lot of unmotivated flying days) and rewards actually turning on all my word not allowed software like ATC/GSX/OnAir etc. The currency is given out based on exactly those terms, active flying with apps on. Flying with only MSFS open rewards 1x the currency, flying with up to 5 categories on can give up to a 5x multiplier. In addition, bonuses for landing at PA airports - motivation to make cool looking airports people want to visit!

We do have a supporter pack for a small one time boost with a few more perks as a thanks for making the project possible. Those supporters already made 3d maps possible for everyone.

4 hours ago, Kristofski said:

I really like the concept, but I noticed some of the player created airports just pave right over existing subdivisions, highways, etc without any scrutiny or attempt to blend; that's a little jarring to me, and I am wondering how easy it is to turn off other players airports from spawning if you don't like the look or placement of them?

This is obviously a free flight thing - just checking that it doesn't interfere with/turns itself off if you are doing career mode? There's enough bugs there already lol

Haha yeah - I'd thought a lot about people doing stuff exactly like that. To head those concerns off, any user can easily hide any other users airport from their sync/sim. Hidden airports go on a report that I review, and enough people hiding an airport will auto-hide it from everyone until I review. Right now, people are still learning the tools and how to actually make a good airport, so I'm heavily leaning on leniency and education.

I'd like to believe that given the right tools, the vast majority of people will create something beautiful - and I'd like to give everyone that chance.

Hope to see you creating one yourself soon!

4 hours ago, Kristofski said:

This is obviously a free flight thing - just checking that it doesn't interfere with/turns itself off if you are doing career mode? There's enough bugs there already lol

Oops - forgot this one. I honestly haven't touched career mode since 2024 came out. I wasn't impressed and genuinely have no idea if PA airports will even show up there or not lol. I might have to test this later

18 hours ago, McCrackenAir said:

the currency is given out based on exactly those terms, active flying with apps on. Flying with only MSFS open rewards 1x the currency, flying with up to 5 categories on can give up to a 5x multiplier.

Hmmm OK now I need to know what Apps you need active to get more points lol I only fly with P2ATC open, I don't use Onair or GSX or anything else. I might be in a minority there :)

Glad to hear this isn't a microtransaction driven system!

I'll give it a try this weekend. Been making SAR missions in the Miltech Mission Hub and this could be a nice way to create an FBO to launch from.

One account = one plot right? or can you eventually make multiple airports?

You can't edit default MSFS 2024 airports right? That's too bad :(

Edited Thursday at 03:36 PM1 day by iFlySimX

4 minutes ago, iFlySimX said:

You can edit default MSFS 2024 airports right? That's too bad :(

Nope! I have a vast majority of airports have the area around them blocked from being claimed. I can't say it's perfect, and backcountry/private/old airports are less likely to have been blocked. If you find any that aren't, I can add them to the block list. Same thing for Natl parks in the US. I don't have good data for important POI's elsewhere yet. Willing to block those off too.

5 hours ago, Kristofski said:

Hmmm OK now I need to know what Apps you need active to get more points lol I only fly with P2ATC open, I don't use Onair or GSX or anything else. I might be in a minority there :)

Glad to hear this isn't a microtransaction driven system!

I'll give it a try this weekend. Been making SAR missions in the Miltech Mission Hub and this could be a nice way to create an FBO to launch from.

One account = one plot right? or can you eventually make multiple airports?

One account can have several plots. Increasing cost per plot, meant to fulfill the need for longer term goals. One guy already bought a second plot near his first, and made a lil seaplane base. Really fun to fly between. Will be cool to see how your SAR base turns out!