Guest article by Jack Frankie

In 2021, Infinite Flight celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary. In 2022, Infinite Flight continues to pave the way to the future of mobile flight simulation. During an hour-long staff stream hosted by Dan Woodhams, featuring Laura Laban, Philippe Rollin, Cameron Carmichael Alonso, Jason Rosewell, Tyler Shelton, and Kai Malcolm, we gave a bit of a preview as to what’s to come in 2022 and beyond.

Animated Jet Bridges

The development of moving jet bridges has been an idea ever since the early days of 3D building development. The introduction of 3D buildings and objects allowed the dream to come alive. Laura and Philippe discussed the development process and showed/explained how jet bridges will work in Infinite Flight.

With the current state of development, Laura believes that this feature will be ready for the next release (22.1) but nothing is set in stone. Currently, the system will automatically find jet bridges for your specific gate and realistically attach them to left-facing doors, using different stops for different sizes of aircraft. The system can currently handle up to 3 jet bridges which will allow for service to aircraft ranging from the Dash-8 all the way to the A380.

This feature will be added to all current and future 3D airports but this process won’t be automated. Each jet bridge will be tested by a select group of individuals at an airport prior to that airport being released. Jet bridges will only be animated for your aircraft in the first release, with animated jet bridges for other online aircraft being implemented in a future update.

Our developer timeline has more frequently asked questions about Jet Bridges.

F/A-18E and Military Airports coming to life

We're excited to breathe some new life into military aviation. Today, we introduced some things that have been in the works behind the scenes. Shown in the stream were a plethora of objects to be added to military and air national guard bases around the world. Among those objects were sunshade hangars, ammunition carts, Military K-Loaders, and Military Fuel Trucks.

Military 3D objects coming to Infinite Flight

Infinite Flight recently hosted a head-to-head poll between the F/A-18C and F/A-18E on the Infinite Flight Community to see what variant the community wanted for the highly anticipated F/A-18 Rework. With overwhelming majority support, the F/A-18 Super Hornet won. During the stream, it was announced that work was underway on the Super Hornet and that the 3D artists will be using a different technology to develop this aircraft, using control points and proportions. More information on this fighter to come on the team's social media as development progresses.

E-Jet Rework

During the timeframe that a 3D modeling team will be working on the Super Hornet, a separate team will be working on the 3D modeling of both the Embraer 175 and 190. These two aircraft were chosen due to their similarities while also alluding to the diverse regions that these aircraft are flown. The E175 is mainly used in North America whereas the E190 is used more globally (mainly focused in Europe and South America).

Beginning stages of the 3D modeling process for the ERJ in Infinite Flight

More 3D Airports + The Introduction of Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) - KLAX

Arguably the largest feature to be introduced since the release of global, 3D buildings have reshaped how we know Infinite Flight today. With 136 3D airports being added in 2021, we aim to exponentially increase the number of 3D airports that we release in 2022 thanks to a growing team of internal airport editors.

Screenshot from Infinite Flight simulator of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX with a work in progress graphic. — Tom Bradley International Terminal at KLAX in Infinite Flight

In addition, we showed off Tom Bradley International Terminal at KLAX airport, which will be the first of many realistically detailed and modeled-to-scale terminals to be added to Infinite Flight. This terminal was chosen to be the first of its kind due to its popularity and how iconic it is throughout the aviation community. In the future, more detailed buildings like TBIT will be developed into the app, keeping in mind geographic and traffic-diverse airports for all types of pilots all around the world.

Enhanced Lighting

Among some of the top requested features on the Infinite Flight Community Forum include taxiway lights and other enhanced lighting-based features. Today, Philippe gave a good overview of the ongoing development of these highly-anticipated features.

Taxiway Lights
Enhanced Runway Lights
Approach Lights

All of these lights have been in the works and everything is finally starting to come together. Philippe discussed the many challenges during the development of lighting, including making them look good during both night and day, all while still ensuring minimum impact on frame-rate and user experience. While there will still be a lot of challenges that we will have to overcome before the feature is pushed into the app, progress is being made.

Giving some insight into the current development status, Philippe also mentioned that the lighting will have different intensities, rendering distances, and specific beam angles at which they’ll be displayed. While lights won’t illuminate onto aircraft in the first iteration, it’ll be something that will be looked at down the line.

Additional Features Mentioned

New Liveries Incoming (Including the Fly Pegasus Boeing 737-800 that was mentioned during the Livestream)
Plans to improve low-level VFR flying quality by adding refinement to the terrain
Airbus A220 sounds are still in the works as we await an aircraft sound provider
Taxi instructions are in the works but not much to share at this time
Additional features that were left on cliffhangers

Screenshot from Infinite Flight simulator of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX with a work in progress graphic and Singapore Airlines B777 parked at the gate. — Singapore Airlines B777 parked at a gate at the Tom Bradly International Terminal at LAX in Infinite Flight

Infinite Flight User Guide

The Infinite Flight community has historically been a great source of help and instruction for new pilots. In addition to this, users can now reference a comprehensive set of user guides that range from launching the app for the first time to in-depth instructions on how to use instrument procedures. Visit infiniteflight.com/guide to get started.

About Infinite Flight

Infinite Flight brings mobile flight simulation and Air Traffic control to phones and tablets. Infinite Flight is a full-featured, multiplayer, mobile flight simulator for aviation lovers on the go. Enjoy the most comprehensive flight simulation experience available on mobile devices-whether you are a curious novice or an accomplished pilot. Fly alone in solo mode, or upgrade to the amazing Live multiplayer mode for the most engaging flying and ATC experience with other subscribers all around the world.

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