Today Black Square announced a release window for its advanced twin-turboprop business aircraft Beechcraft Starship for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and MSFS 2020.
The aircraft will be released in June 2025, and its store page is already available on Just Flight.
Black Square is known for its advanced avionics and complex simulation, and the Starship certainly doesn’t look like an exception. It’ll also have audio recorded by Boris Audio Works recorded from the real aircraft.
The developer promises a flight model with performance matching the real-world aircraft, based on feedback from real Starship owners and in-flight data. Engine and aerodynamic performance are said to be within 2% of the values reported on the Pilot Operating Handbook.
The announcement came with a trailer, which you can see below.
Below you can read an official list of features.
- 90-page manual with your complete guide to flying the Black Square Starship, including systems guide, tutorials, operating limitations, performance tables and electrical schematics.
- Tablet Interface for configuring options, payload settings, failure management and real time visualisers for engines, electrical schematics and environmental systems.
- One-of-a-kind Collins AMS-850 ’14-tube’ (CRT) avionics suite and associated line-replaceable-unit failure logic, quirks, eccentricities and never-seen-again features of the first all-glass panel cockpit and flight management system in a business aircraft.
- Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Omega radio navigation systems from the pre-GPS era. Configure the aircraft to tune stations on the other side of the globe, and manage six DME receivers to maintain accurate position information in a time before GPS.
- Avionics and instrument panel temperature simulation require you to properly manage the equipment cooling systems on the aircraft, or else be faced with electronics and display failures that will necessitate reversionary modes and hardware redundancy.
- 230+ random, scheduled or performance-triggered failures, settable via the tablet interface, including engine damage, compatible with third party UIs and instructor stations.
- Fully simulated environmental control and pressurisation system for heating, air conditioning, ventilation and ram air cooling. Cool things off by opening a door or watch the aircraft heat up in the sun. Monitor via the new tablet interface.
- NEW terrain and weather radar technology creates a functioning terrain radar without the use of WASM modules or external desktop software applications. Aircraft pitch, antenna position, transceiver gain, precipitation rate and altitude all influence the radar depiction.
- Completely simulated electrical system, with 170+ circuit breakers and failures.
- NEW functional windshield wipers clear rain with improved realistic visuals.
- Improved turboprop dynamics, including (ITT, TRQ, Ng, FF, FP), hot starts, residual heat, and exhaust back pressure, P2.5 HP and LP valve simulation and fuel-oil heat exchanger.
- Turbine engine failures, such as compressor stall and surging, fuel control failure, fuel filter clogs, propeller governors and fire suppression systems.
- FOD damage based on surface type. Use the inertial separators to avoid engine damage. Tablet interface displays the type and intensity of FOD.
- NEW physics-driven propeller governor and feathering simulation and beta range from the Black Square Duke
- Floppy disk reader for updating navigation databases and reading other data files.
- Gyroscope physics simulation for electric and pneumatic gyroscopes with precession and partial failures, based on a coupled quadrature oscillator.
- Voltage-based light dimming, an immediately recognisable effect to night-time pilots.
- Strobe light system causes realistic distracting flashes in clouds.
- St. Elmo’s Fire and static discharge on static wicks and windshields in severe weather.
- Mathematically accurate VOR and ADF signal attenuation and noise degradation.
- Physics-based instrument needles bounce and respond to aerodynamic forces.
- Functional exterior elements: chocks, pitot covers, engine covers, gear downlock pins and ground power generator. Pitot cover flags blow in the wind.
- Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) simulation and warm-up based on instrument panel temperature.
- Improper engine management will slowly damage engines to failure.
- Carbon Monoxide leaks are possible and can be detected with the CO detector.
- State saving for fuel, radio selection, radio frequency memory, cabin aesthetics etc.
- Crew/Passenger oxygen depletes according to pressure altitude and passenger occupancy.
- Ultra-custom dynamic registration number system for livery creators.
We also have plenty of spiffy screenshots.
We even get a comprehensive list of instruments simulated within the aircraft.
Main Panel
- ASI-850A Airspeed Indicator (ASI)
- ALI-850A Altitude/Vertical Speed Indicator (ALI)
- PFD-870 Primary Flight Display (PFD)
- ND-870 Navigation Display (ND)
- ECD-870 Engine/Caution Display (EICAS)
- MFD-870 Multifunction Display (MFD)
- CDU-850A Control Display Unit (CDU)
- SDU-640A Sensor Display Unit (SDU)
- RTU-870A Radio Tuning Units (RTU)
- CHP-850 Course/Heading Panel (CHP)
- AAP-850 Altitude Awareness Panel (AAP)
- MSP-850A Autopilot Mode Select Panel (MSP)
- APP-85D Autopilot Panel (APP)
- ARINC 429 Digital Clock
- Reversionary & Switching Panel (Pilot/Copilot/Center)
- Airspeed, Attitude & Altitude Standby Instrumentation
Other Equipment & LRUs
- ADC-850 Air Data Computer (ADC)
- FMC-851A Flight Management Computer (FMC)
- EDC-850 Engine Data Concentrator (EDC)
- DAU-850 Data Acquisition Unit (DAU)
- FCC-850 Flight Control Computer (FCC)
- DBU-850 Data Base Unit (DBU)
- RTA-854 Weather Radar (TWR)
- Angle of Attack Indicator (AOA)
- Garmin GNS 430 (GNS)
- HF-9000 High Frequency Communication Transceiver (HF)
Electrical/Miscellaneous
- 172+ Circuit Breakers
- Voltmeters & Ammeters
- Fire Detector & Extinguishers
- Pneumatic Pressure Indicators
- Fuel Temperature & Quantity Indicators
- Oxygen Pressure Indicator
- Cabin Temperature Indicator
- Carbon Monoxide Detector
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is available for PC and Xbox Series X|S. It’s worth mentioning that Fenix’s aircraft are PC exclusive.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also available for the same platforms following its recent release in November. If you want to see the massive visual difference against Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, you can enjoy our video and screenshot comparison.
A few weeks ago, we published an extensive interview with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann about the present situation of the sim and the plans for the future.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our latest roundup article from yesterday.
You can also go further back and enjoy our video roundup below with a recap of all of last week’s most relevant news.
