Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s Boeing 707 Rework Adds a Virtual Flight Engineer

The revamped Famous Flyer 10: Boeing 707-320C was released earlier this week for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Working Title co-founder Chris Burnett has now explained how the classic airliner was rebuilt. The week of August 10 Marketplace batch listed the aircraft at $14.99 for PC and Xbox in a Marketplace update.

Burnett discussed the project in an official interview with Microsoft Flight Simulator, covering the aircraft’s systems, cockpit workflow, navigation equipment, and the hazards of trying to recreate its famous barrel roll.

The launch trailer offers a quick look at the finished aircraft:

How Working Title and iniBuilds divided the 707

iniBuilds handled the Boeing 707-320C’s interior and exterior model, along with its audio. The team also gathered visual references and visited several surviving aircraft. Recreating the cockpit was especially difficult because no remaining aircraft has the exact original cockpit and configuration represented by this version of the 707.

Working Title focused on the simulation itself. Its work covered the aircraft systems, avionics, flight model, interactions, and in-flight behavior. The team also simulated a large number of the 707’s manual systems, including its pneumatic, electrical, and hydraulic systems, as well as its compass and gyro equipment.

A virtual flight engineer handles the busy cockpit

The real aircraft normally required three or more flight crew members, so the teams needed a way to keep the detailed simulation manageable for solo pilots. Their answer was a custom electronic flight bag with convenience settings and a virtual flight engineer.

The virtual flight engineer includes 12 complete cockpit flows. Each one combines spoken callouts with localized text captions that show every checklist step as it happens. That gives players a guided way to learn the aircraft while still preserving the work involved in operating its systems.

The EFB also contains options for adjusting how much assistance the virtual flight engineer provides. The user manual goes into the full feature set, although the team designed the Boeing 707’s EFB to be straightforward to use once pilots spend a little time with it.

Three navigation systems, three different workflows

The aircraft includes three long-range navigation choices: the CIVA INS, Garmin GNS 530, and Universal UNS-1. All three systems appeared on real aircraft at some point, but they offer very different experiences in the simulator.

CIVA INS is the traditional option. It works alongside radio navigation for departures, arrivals, and approaches, using equipment such as VOR and NDB stations for those parts of a flight. The simulation includes drift and error correction, while a dedicated CIVA tab in the EFB can handle flight-plan setup for players who would rather skip the manual process.

Drift, alignment time, and the inclusion of departure or arrival procedures can all be configured. CIVA does have an important limitation: it follows points with a fixed turn-anticipation value and does not understand turn radius in the way newer navigators do. Short legs and sharp turns can send the aircraft wide, particularly when the autopilot is in control.

The GNS 530 offers the only moving map among the three options. The UNS-1 instead uses a more recent-style CDU interface, which should feel familiar to pilots who prefer airline avionics. Both systems work with the aircraft’s GPS steering adapter, although tight turns at high speed can still confuse the autopilot.

The navigation equipment also supports non-RNP-AR glidepaths, allowing pilots to couple an RNAV approach with vertical guidance when the aircraft’s switches are configured correctly. Flight plans can be imported from the simulator’s flight planner through the SEND TO AVIONICS button for the GNS and UNS-1. CIVA users can import them through its dedicated EFB tab and choose whether procedures should come along with the plan.

Researching a 1950s airliner created its own problems

Burnett pointed to the lack of definitive references as one of the hardest parts of development. The team could not rely on a single authoritative flight manual and instead found a large collection of references that sometimes contradicted one another. Research for the 707 went beyond what the team normally needed for newer aircraft.

A friend who had flown a 707-derived aircraft in the USAF, along with that pilot’s network, helped Working Title reconcile some of the missing information. The second major challenge was balancing a detailed systems model with a cockpit that would not turn away pilots who were new to older airliners. The virtual flight engineer and the EFB were built to solve both problems at once.

For Burnett, the reward is the 707’s analog cockpit. The aircraft keeps pilots busy with manual controls and systems that later airliners automated, from the first setup steps through the final approach. He also singled out the virtual flight engineer’s callouts and cockpit flows as one of his favorite parts of the aircraft.

The famous barrel roll is possible, but risky

The Boeing 707’s history includes Tex Johnson’s famous barrel roll in the Dash-80 prototype during the 1950s. Working Title tested the maneuver in the simulator, even though the team does not have many details about precisely how the original flight was performed.

Burnett said the maneuver was attempted more than once, including one Lufthansa training-flight attempt that ended in disaster. In the simulator, it is easy to enter an attitude that cannot be recovered, leading to a crash or an in-flight breakup. The team managed to complete the roll, but plenty of test attempts ended badly.

So yes, sim pilots can try it. The developers’ advice is much simpler: do not expect the 707 to forgive a sloppy stunt.

Burnett also joined Matt from the Microsoft Flight Simulator Community Team for a livestream focused on the Boeing 707-320C and its systems:

Have you taken the 707 for a flight yet, or are you planning to test the barrel roll? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, Telegram.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Developed by Asobo Studio

Pursue your dream of an aviation career with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This brand-new simulator is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming to create the most sophisticated, immersive and awe-inspiring flight simulator of all time. To achieve this unprecedented level of accuracy, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is powered by the significantly evolved Asobo Studio engine.

• Genre Simulator
• Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation VR2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
• Perspective First person, Third person, Virtual Reality
• Modes Single player, Multiplayer
• Release November 19, 2024
• Publisher Xbox Game Studios
• Age Rating

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