Goodbye Flight Simulator, Hello Microsoft Flight

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 06:33 PM ET

Verified

Lockheed Martin software in a Flyit FTD Stephen Pope

Key Takeaways:

Microsoft has sold the core Flight Simulator X technology and intellectual property to Lockheed Martin, which now develops and sells it as "Prepar3D" for professional flight training and military pilot use.
Microsoft is independently developing a new title, "Microsoft Flight," designed to retain simulation fidelity while introducing new gameplay, challenges, and significant online social connectivity.
The author, a long-time flight simulator user, acknowledges the educational benefits of such games but expresses reservations about the new Microsoft Flight's potential system requirements and online community dynamics.

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If you own a copy of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, you might want to grab a pen, scratch the name Microsoft off the box and write Lockheed Martin instead.

That’s because Lockheed Martin has licensed the software and the intellectual goodies that go with it, marking the end of the line for one of the most successful game series in the history of computing, spanning almost 30 years since the original in 1982, called Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0.