Microsoft Flight Simulator Is Getting a Hot Air Balloon for Your Sightseeing Pleasure

Microsoft Flight Simulator has a whole, beautiful world to explore, but most aircraft may not as be slow enough to catch all the details.

The good folks at Hype Performance Group, whom you may know for their Airbus H145 helicopter, have decided to fill this gap by releasing a fully functional hot air balloon.

The vehicle will release on Friday, October 7, and it’ll cost $15. At the moment, it’ll launch only for PC on Hype Performance Group’s own website, and an Xbox Version has not been announced.

Here’s a list of the features you can expect:

Highly Detailed 3D Model, Textures, and Animations

• Professionally modeled with incredible interior and exterior details
• 17 liveries included, all at 4K resolution and with PBR textures inside and out
• Fully animated cockpit and animations for inflation, deflation, stall, and collapse
• Animated 3D humans including a hot air balloon operator and 2 passengers
• Designed and optimized for VR with great FPS performance, working VR Cockpit Zoom, and proper visual scaling throughout the model

Avionics & Systems

• Steam gauges showing barometric altitude, vertical speed and envelope thermometer
• Available AI pilot that can control the hot air balloon based off terrain or altitude
• EFB tablet included with maps and additional apps available
• Balloonist Maps App: shows GPS speed and track
• Little NavMap App: connect to LNM, the free open source flight planner, navigation tool, moving map, airport search and airport information system
• Nearby Radio Stations: listen to radio stations local to the area you’re currently flying in

Hot Air Balloon Flight Model

• Fully integrated internal hot air balloon flight model and envelope simulation
• Power Plant: 2x 12 million BTU burners with realistic visual and sound effects

Immersive Sound Pack

• Realistic burner and environmental sounds 

Bonus Features

• Launch fireworks with realistic visual and audio smoke and explosion effects
• Create other nearby AI flown HPG Hot Air Balloons on demand
• HPG Hot Air Balloon can be set to follow a MSFS flight plan or current wind conditions

If you’d like to read more about Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons, you can enjoy our recent reviews of the Twin Otter, Auckland International Airport, Skiathos Airport, Athens International Airport, Bergamo Orio al Serio Airport, Amami Airport, Bristol Airport, Marrakech Menara Airport, Great Britain Central, Tehran Imam Khomeini Airport, Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, Shanghai Pudong Airport, Kraków Airport, Fukuoka City & Airport, Fort Lauderdale Airport, Chongqing City & Airport, Manila Airport, Santiago Airport, the Frankfurt City Pack, Key West Airport, the Okavango Delta, Bali Airport, London Oxford Airport, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, the CRJ 550/700, the PA-28R Arrow III, Kristiansand Airport, Macau City & Airport, Bonaire Flamingo Airport, Milano Linate Airport, the Singapore City Pack, Tokyo Narita Airport, Yao Airport, the F-15 Eagle, the Paris City Pack, Greater Moncton Airport, Tweed New Haven Airport, Santorini Airport, Sydney Airport, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Reggio Calabria Airport, Bastia Poretta Airport, Munich Airport, Paris Orly Airport, Newcastle International Airport, Sankt Johann Airfield, Dublin International Airport, and Seoul City Wow. We also have a beta preview of Singapore Changi airport.

If you want to learn more about the game itself, you can read our review which will tell you everything you need to know about Asobo Studio’s game.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for PC (Windows 10 and Steam), and Xbox Series X|S.