Hopefully a great successor to the Project Tupolev Tu-154 from the FSX/early P3D era for those who enjoyed their stuff. It seems like FSS is taking this seriously and is aiming for realism and complexity, which is a good thing. This is a 1960's-70s (through 90s and early 2000's) era tri-jet with a wide customer base and which has been seen globally. No ETA but I'm wildly guessing at early 2027.

MSFS Addons

FlightSim Studio shares first development update on its T...

The first development update since the FSExpo reveal tackles EFB, tail geometry, and a 22-strong livery list, though a release date remains off the table.

I'm really hoping they get this right, while also providing assists and calculators akin to what Project Tupolev did in the past, notably to assist in using the NVU for RSBN navigation.

Sounds like they intend on a wide selection of liveries representing operators in Europe and Asia, and are also seeking additional technical references and expertise to ensure they get things correct.

I suspect that this addon once released may be met with some hostility since it's very much Russian (vs the Ukrainian-based Antonov) but we'll see how it goes. It's exciting to me as a years-long user of the Project Tupolev models (and another lesser known but equally high fidelity payware model from a Russian provider) who has missed the 154 for years now.

This is your dream addon isn't it hehe? I seem to recall you enjoyed old Russian airliners.

2 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

This is your dream addon isn't it hehe? I seem to recall you enjoyed old Russian airliners.

I was very (extremely?) pleasantly surprised to see it announced as an FSS endeavor. I remember when the original author (who is still involved in some capacity) said he passed off the model to an anonymous company, and I thought "vaporware". It'll be nice to have an old friend back in the latest sim. No connection to Russia or the Soviet times otherwise, but I'm fascinated by their tech. :) Also, this thing coming out with almost two dozen liveries just to start? Awesome!

I wonder if the spoken checklists (like the FSS 727) will be in Russian too, that would be fantastic for the immersion although I wouldn't have a clue of what the engineer would say.

20 minutes ago, alexcolka said:

I wonder if the spoken checklists (like the FSS 727) will be in Russian too, that would be fantastic for the immersion although I wouldn't have a clue of what the engineer would say.

I hope so and almost expect that as an option. Project Tupolev had an abundance of crew status callouts throughout all flight regimes from pre-startup through shutdown, and what they did in the manual was add an appendix (from what I remember) that listed the callout in Russian (in Cyrillic), then they provided a transliteration using English letters (so you know what the Russian sounds like and can pick it out), and next to that was an English translation.

I'm thinking if FSS introduces a Russian speaking crew (with an English option) this would be a good way to do it in the manual. Russian phrase in Russian, translit using English letters, and then also provide an English translation of what they're saying (and what it means).

What I'm also curious about is who they are seeking advice from from a flight dynamics perspective. There used to be a "Flight School" section on the Project Tupolev forums, where one could basically send a virtual black box recording of their flight and have the PT team analyze it and provide advice on how to more realistically conduct the flight in the future. They were extremely particular when it came to detail, looking for engine parameters down to single percentage points, control surface movements measured in a range of millimeters, speeds within a couple of kilometers, etc etc. It took extreme precision to meet their standards for what was considered to be a well executed route.

Finally, RSBN navigation. I never learned to tackle it manually and instead relied on their accompanying calculation software, but it's a whole new world that to me was dissimilar from everything else, including INS procedures. Calculating sine and cosine to determine headings, converting one map format to the NVU's computer, etc etc. Lots of math and complexity, and that doesn't include the peculiarities of the system on the center console unit itself.

This aircraft is going to be intimidating, exciting, and a whole new world for many.

24 minutes ago, STK said:

I hope so and almost expect that as an option. Project Tupolev had an abundance of crew status callouts throughout all flight regimes from pre-startup through shutdown, and what they did in the manual was add an appendix (from what I remember) that listed the callout in Russian (in Cyrillic), then they provided a transliteration using English letters (so you know what the Russian sounds like and can pick it out), and next to that was an English translation.

I'm thinking if FSS introduces a Russian speaking crew (with an English option) this would be a good way to do it in the manual. Russian phrase in Russian, translit using English letters, and then also provide an English translation of what they're saying (and what it means).

What I'm also curious about is who they are seeking advice from from a flight dynamics perspective. There used to be a "Flight School" section on the Project Tupolev forums, where one could basically send a virtual black box recording of their flight and have the PT team analyze it and provide advice on how to more realistically conduct the flight in the future. They were extremely particular when it came to detail, looking for engine parameters down to single percentage points, control surface movements measured in a range of millimeters, speeds within a couple of kilometers, etc etc. It took extreme precision to meet their standards for what was considered to be a well executed route.

Finally, RSBN navigation. I never learned to tackle it manually and instead relied on their accompanying calculation software, but it's a whole new world that to me was dissimilar from everything else, including INS procedures. Calculating sine and cosine to determine headings, converting one map format to the NVU's computer, etc etc. Lots of math and complexity, and that doesn't include the peculiarities of the system on the center console unit itself.

This aircraft is going to be intimidating, exciting, and a whole new world for many.

That would be fantastic, those options you mentioned, I mean. Regarding the Flight School of PT, never knew that, wow. Yes I had the plane in those FSX and FS9 days I think. Printed the manuals tried to learn the systems, also had Felis Tu-154 for XP, but I must confess: loving the plane never understood it fully, who knows with this FSS version, would be a great challenge.