Long Shots: Your unusual, rare or niche aircraft wishlist

I was inspired by @Baracus250’s great thread about oddball aircraft we already have in sim, and wanted to make a companion about oddball aircraft we’d love to see in sim even if, as the title suggests, it’s a long shot!

I’ll kick things off with one I’d love to see, and I’ll pop in regularly with additions as I have a long backlog of oddballs I’d personally fund the development of in MSFS if I were a wealthy man!

Why does that make me think of the DHC-4 Caribou?

Curtiss P6-E Hawk

It does have a similar design sensibility… or maybe lack thereof in some people’s eyes :laughing:

Hawker Siddeley HS.748. It’s rare nowadays but back in the day it was a very popular commuter airliner

Fairey Gannet

I want SOFIA!

I really want the two Fairchilds:

C-119 Flying Boxcar
C-123 Provider

NAMC YS-11 - especially in Piedmont colors
BAe ATP

The last flyable Martin Mars, Hawaii Mars will make it’s last flight this coming October (planned). I believe it will do a “victory lap” around the areas that it has protected from forest fires for decades before being delivered to the British Columbia Aviation Museum. It would be great to see this beautiful airplane in the sim!

The Kyūshū J7W Shinden (震電, “Magnificent Lightning”) is a World War II Japanese propeller-driven prototype fighter plane with wings at the rear of the fuselage, a nose-mounted canard, and a pusher propellor.

  • 1 × Mitsubishi Ha-43 Model 12 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 2,130 hp for take-off.
    1,730 hp @ sea level
    1,850 @ 2,000 m (6,600 ft)
    1,660 hp @ 8,400 m (27,600 ft)
    6-bladed metal constant-speed pusher propeller

Performance

Maximum speed: 750 km/h (470 mph, 400 kn) at 8,700 m (28,500 ft)
Cruise speed: 422 km/h (262 mph, 228 kn) at 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
Range: 852 km (529 mi, 460 nm)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,000 ft)
Rate of climb 2,600 fpm.

  1. NAMC YS-11
  2. Airbus Helos / Eurocopter / Aerospatiale AS365N Dauphin II
  3. Mil Mi-24V “Hind-E” (or any Hind other than the ugly A model)
  4. Kamov Ka-27 and Ka-32
  5. Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscar”
  6. Mitsubishi F1M “Pete” floatplane
  7. Mil Mi-26 “Halo”
  8. Bell AH-1F (or S) Cobra.
  9. Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot
  10. Fairchild Metroliner

Other than maybe the Dauphin I highly doubt we’ll see any of these.

Both great picks, and I hope at least some dev out there will pick one up. The 119 is such a cool design and had some great post-military uses as airtankers and smokejumper carriers.

I’ve heard that Taog is planning a Dauphin, not sure the exact model. It would come after his Huey.

100% agreed on the Metroliner. I feel like it’s gotta show up eventually.

Yeah I think he was focused on the MH-65 version from the USCG, but not sure if he plans on others, and if he still plans on it pending 2024.

This would be an amazing Local Legend or Famous Flyer for Japan if we ever have one for that region again (or in FS24). First Japanese commercial airliner, I think.

I just did a little reading on it, and yeah, it was the first Japanese production to replace the imported DC-3’s. It was originally intended for domestic use, but it ended up being used all over the world, including right here in Greensboro at the original terminal.

Etrich Taube.

This impossible to find, very rare bird that apparently has never been considered. Probably not very desired or common.

No one will take the Q400 since Majestic has claimed for a few years now to be bringing over theirs as a port, and they are hard to beat systems-wise. Latest update is that it’s coming in mid to late 2025.