Microsoft Flight Simulator is a great way to experience the (usually) serene joys of civilian aviation, but if you’ve been craving the more daring flying experience found in fighter jets, you’ve been out of luck. Fortunately, that’s over – now you can get your hands on an add-on pack that adds an Italian jet trainer to the big plane game, so prepare yourself for some barrel rolling.
A company called IndiaFoxtEcho Visual Simulations has created an add-on for Flight Simulator that includes two variants of the Aermacchi MB-339, the light attack jet flown by Italy’s Frecce Tricolori aerobatic display team. The jet is also commonly used as a trainer by the Italian air force, and now it’s available for purchase for Flight Simulator, as TwinFinite has reported.
The two variants in the pack include the MB-339A, which is the original version of the aircraft and features wingtip-mounted fuel tanks, and the MB-339PAN, the model adapted for use by Frecce Tricolori, which drops the wingtip fuel pods. The real-world MB-339PAN also includes a smoke generator (for those flashy red, white, and green aerial displays), but IndiaFoxtEcho (sadly) doesn’t mention these in the add-on pack’s description.
Fortunately, you do get two high-quality aircraft models along with a detailed (front seat) cockpit view, as well as seven different liveries in 8K. Those include the Frecce Tricolori, Italian Air Force Camouflage, Italian Air Force Ghost Grey, United Arab Emirates, Armada Argentina, Royal Malaysian Air Force, and the fresh-from-the-factory default flat drab.
The pack costs $23.57 USD / £18.21 / €20, and you can get it on SimMarket. Once you make your purchase, you’ll download a 910MB executable file to install. The developer recommends that, given the level of detail of the models and textures, you should have at least a 3.5GHz quad-core CPU and an Nvidia GTX 960 or better for your GPU.