First announced in November of 2020, Leonardo has undergone active development of it’s incredible McDonnell Douglas MD-80 for the new simulator. It’s been a couple months since we’ve last heard from the team, but recently, Stefan subtly commented on the Maddog X forum that the aircraft is currently in it’s beta stage, and the software is progressing well.
Leonardo’s MD-80 was originally developed for Prepar3Dv4 and FSX. It’s widely considered by the flight simulation community to be one of the best airliners available for any simulator platform, and arguably the best MD-80 available, period. The aircraft delivers fully simulated failures, accurate systems, superb modeling, and a proactive development team.
Reverting back to the MSFS compatible MD-80, the team has shared a few videos on its YouTube channel, showcasing the aircraft in action. Other than their videos and promising comments regarding the aircraft’s development progress, though, we haven’t received any additional information surrounding its release.
Stefano mentioned that more details will follow this announcement, make sure to keep up to date with Leonardo’s progress on their forums, as well as with us here at Threshold.