Boeing is now using Microsoft's $70 flight simulator game to train actual pilots — 'Virtual Airplane' is powered by MSFS, legitimizing my unhealthy gameplay hours

One of the biggest aerospace manufacturers made an interesting announcement this month. It was certainly unexpected enough that I was double and triple-checking the details, unsure if I was dreaming, but it's true: Boeing will train its current and future pilots with a new system integrated with Microsoft Flight Simulator (confirmed in a press release from Boeing itself, thanks to PC Gamer).

Technically, since this new training platform is said to be "powered by" MSFS and Azure, it isn't the same as just asking its trainees to play the game, but I've seen enough corporate speak to know what that might mean. Likely stripped of its more videogame-centric features, like its career and trails modes, this "Virtual Airplane" actually hints at a more interesting departure for Microsoft's popular flight sim.

Traditionally popular with PC gamers, and later on Xbox thanks in part to Game Pass, Boeing's more serious variant is built "for use on computers and iPad devices for Boeing 737 MAX, with additional Boeing models coming soon" — MSFS 2024 already made its way to PlayStation, and in an extremely specific and restricted way, it's now moving to iOS — even if that is via a stripped-down, nerfed version of itself.

"3D simulations in light-weight devices"

While I'll likely never be anywhere close to any device running Boeing's new Virtual Airplane software in real life, it's easy for me to understand why Microsoft Flight Simulator would be used as a base. The game already painstakingly recreates the cockpits and external structure of the world's most recognizable airplanes, alongside a 3D recreation of our entire planet, so why not take advantage of that?

Realistically, and based on Boeing's description of "tools for realistic flight-deck practice", this platform is more likely a slice of the 3D first-person cockpit view in its own Boeing 737 MAX planes, without much more needed from Microsoft's simulator. Familiarizing pilots with panel layouts in tailor-made training programs running on laptops or tablets is a great idea, if an unorthodox repackaging of a flight sim game, but I'm into it.

If nothing else, it legitimizes the hours I've spent at my desk, learning the placement of a few buttons, yokes, and throttles that let me pass the training sections of Microsoft Flight Simulator with a passing grade (barely).

More seriously, it's a potentially fantastic use of the unfathomable globe-scanning detail gathered by Microsoft's Azure platform and wrangled into a 3D environment by the MSFS developers at Asobo Studio. It's advancements like these that make me realize how deep the simulation game genre can be, especially for someone who tinkers in the shallow end, looking for the best way to convince everyone else to try it.

Full-fledged aerospace manufacturers using parts in Microsoft Flight Simulator in an official training capacity is more in line with the vibes I get from die-hard sim fans whom I've met over the years, and I can respect the obsession.

Either way, you should play MSFS 2024. It's a lot more fun than you think, even just to fly over your own house — but don't knock on Boeing's HQ after a few hours, expecting to jump in any real planes. I can't be responsible for that.

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