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

Microsoft Flight Simulator has a whole, beautiful world to explore, and soon it'll be even easier with a brand new hot air balloon.

Microsoft Flight SImulator Hot Air Balloon Image Source: Hype Performance Group

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

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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 OtterAuckland International AirportSkiathos AirportAthens International AirportBergamo Orio al Serio AirportAmami AirportBristol AirportMarrakech Menara AirportGreat Britain CentralTehran Imam Khomeini Airport, Moscow Sheremetyevo AirportShanghai Pudong AirportKraków AirportFukuoka City & AirportFort Lauderdale Airport, Chongqing City & AirportManila AirportSantiago Airport, the Frankfurt City PackKey West Airportthe Okavango DeltaBali AirportLondon Oxford AirportBerlin Brandenburg Airport, the CRJ 550/700, the PA-28R Arrow IIIKristiansand Airport, Macau City & AirportBonaire Flamingo AirportMilano Linate Airport, the Singapore City PackTokyo Narita AirportYao Airport, the F-15 Eagle, the Paris City PackGreater Moncton AirportTweed New Haven AirportSantorini AirportSydney AirportHelsinki-Vantaa AirportReggio Calabria Airport, Bastia Poretta AirportMunich Airport, Paris Orly AirportNewcastle International AirportSankt Johann AirfieldDublin 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.

About the author

Giuseppe Nelva

Proud weeb hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long-standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market. RPGs (of any nationality), MMORPGs, and visual novels are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games. He is also one of the few surviving fans on Earth of the flight simulator genre.

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