I think it’s just that the soviets always tried to be different than the western countries, because you can’t say that your stuff is better when it looks like your neighbours stuff.
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How does that work for Airbus and Boeing then ? For the average non-pilot passenger they look identical.
Correct, and the average passenger does not make a difference between them, both are standard airliners. The average passenger would maybe even fly in an Embraer and think that it’s an Airbus.
But you can’t compare the rivalry between Boeing and Airbus to that between the UdSSR and the western world.
Maybe this explains it - they don’t really look like they were ever “trendy cool cutting edge designers” in their heyday 
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The Boeing Moscow Design Centre was employing over 1500 engineers and design staff when it had to abruptly shut it’s doors when Putin’s “special operation” started. Maybe 100 of those stayed with Boeing and moved off shore.
The loss of the Russian design centre was a major blow to Boeing whose US design staff are mainly approaching retirement and is believed to be a major factor in the Boeing announcement that they are not intending to work on any new aircraft designs before 2035 at the earliest.
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Yes, a fact that is conveniently forgotten often. Not talking any politics here, but it was astonishing, that Boeing kept this branch active until the last moment, all the while the US was forcing Europeans to cease business in Russia since 2014. But Boeing IS as political as it gets. So is Airbus. Can’t talk about them as a corporation without getting political.
It’s going to be interesting, if due to that blow to their engineering power, their non-defence sector like the airliner branch will survive in the long run. Currently the order book for past designs is still full. But the 737 Max is fundamentally a 60 years old design. If you count the strong 707 heritage in the 737, then it’s partially a 70 years old design. (with modernised electronics and engines)
At the bottom of it all, Boeing is a text book case of what’s wrong with neoliberal capitalism. Companies being led by business paradigms of being cash cows for share holders. Not by being creators of great things. That finds its equivalent in nature by parasites vs. self sustainable life forms. Hopefully Boeing finds its way back, but it looks like it might be too late. The parasite (neoliberal management) has eaten and killed its host.
Maybe no coincidence: Norwegian’s 787 are scrapped, because their D-Checks are due and economically not worth it. Wow. More profitable to dismantle them for the spare parts. Must be a new record for a plane being short-lived by its economy.
Let’s hope in 50 years there are still current Boeing designs we want to fly in the sim, rather than nostalgic once upon a time designs from companies gone extinct like Douglas Commercial etc.
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Back to the topic of Categories / Pivot Tables!
No rush, but would someone that enjoys this stuff and knows about all aircraft please be able to check my work so far? Here is the WIP PDF: Dropbox - MSFS_Aircraft_Charts_Pivot.pdf - Simplify your life
Maybe @EdamllamaB could assist me? 
@CodenameJack447 – These are the categories I have assigned so far.
- Piston GA (single or twin)
- Radial GA (single or twin)
- Turboprop (single or twin)
- Airliner
- Business Jet
- Military Jet
- Warbird
- Vintage / Biplane
- Ultralight / Sports
- Helicopter (maybe call it Rotorcraft instead)
- Glider
- Seaplane
- Other
Now, onto my QUERIES that I am not sure how to handle as some can fit into multiple categories. Also generally I may have got some aircraft that should be Turboprop wrong as I did not research every single one. I’m sure someone can easily correct me 
My questions are in brackets:
- Just Flight, Piper Turbo Arrow 3/4 and non-Turbo (Piston GA but should be Turboprop too? Or are turbo’d up NA engines DIFFERENT to actual Turboprop for categorisation? There are a few that are regular Piston engine with a Turbo)
- PMDG, Douglas DC-6 (Vintage or Airliner?)
- Black Box Sim, BN 2 Islander & Trisalnder (this ISN’T Turboprop, right?)
- Big Radials, Grumman JRF-6B Goose (Vintage or Radial GA?)
- Wing42 Boeing 247D (Vintage or Airliner?)
- Asobo, Bonanza G36 (with & without mods) - (I think one of the mods adds a Turbo. If not on this then there is definitely one plane that has a Turbo mod)
- Microsoft, Beechcraft Model 18 (Vintage or Airliner?)
- Iris Simulations, Pilatus PC-21 (It’s a Military Trainer, but a PROP, so??)
- Asobo, JMB VL3 (Piston GA or Sports?)
- A1R Design, Ryan ST-A Special (Piston GA or Vintage?)
- Got Friends, Gee Bee R3 Special (Turboprop our Sports?)
- Flysimware, Grumman G44A Widgeon (Piston or Turboprop? Or Radial?)
- Lionheart Creations, LearAvia Lear Fan 2100 (Its a Business PROP lol! I put it as a Business Jet though. There is another on the list that is a business “prop”)
- Asobo, Beechcraft T-6 Texan (Military trainer but Turboprop)
- Carenado, Cessna CT182-T Skylane (is this Turboprop or just Turbo’d engine?)
- Dave Garwood, DeHaviiland DH89 Dragon Rapide (Vintage?)
- Sal1800, Brown B-2 Racer (Vintage or Sports or Piston GA?)
- Lionheart Creations, Pasped Skylark (Vintage?)
- Asobo, Extra 330-LT (Sports or Biplane?)
- Microsoft / Mike Johnson, Savoia-Marchetti S.55
AND - Microsoft Dornier Do J Wal (Pure “Seaplane” - only these 2 in this category. A lot of amphibian planes - maybe THEY need their own category but then what about Kodiak, Wilga, Beaver, Twin Otter etc etc - gets complex!)
- Roland Laborie, Canadair CL-215
AND - FrenchVFR, PBY Catalina (These COULD be Seaplane, as it is their focus, but also they have landing gear!)
- Aeroplane Heaven, Electra 10-A (Vintage or Airliner?)
- AzurPoly, Socata TB-30 Epsilon (It’s a Military Trainer, but a PROP, so??)
There may be more I missed but answering these would probably get us closer. Thanks for any help!
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I would probably combine radial and piston GA, as both are piston engines and there’s not a lot of difference between them.
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About the Wilga flight.
Trying to get this nailed down so I can post it in the Events section asap.
Is 13:00Z on Saturday OK?
Or prefer 13:00Z Sunday?
@GimmickyThyme20 and @Hayray79 - are you interested to join?
To not clutter up this topic, I have made my own Discord server where we can chat. Also for the event itself we can use the Voice “Radio” Channel I created there if you want. Here is the invite:
All welcome - if you are interested to do this thing!
Reminder of the post: Your Current TOP 10 Aircraft - #4265 by Baracus250
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I can join on Saturday, assuming I’m invited to the party. 
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Sunday is alright 
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Of course! Everyone MORE than welcome. We have more interested for Sunday though it seems. Can you do that?
I believe so. 13:00 Zulu is 8:00 AM for me. That’s early enough that I can play for a bit before I get off to my Sunday plans.
Would it be possible to choose multiple categories for one aircraft? So for example a PC-21 would be a turboprop and a military aircraft, because this is true. Someone searching for a turboprop needs to count it in as well as someone searching for a military trainer.
Everything is possible but trying to figure out the display of pivot tables and it’s already getting complex!
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I’ve created the event! Please share with anyone else you think may be up for it!
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This would be really cool! Unfortunately I’m not at home during the daytime this weekend. But to be honest, I fear my internet connection wouldn’t be good enough for this anyway.
But if you ever do a re-run later on I might just join you
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Wow, lot of effort here, it’s very very good indeed.
A very quick glance at the downloadable chart:
I’d merge radial and piston
V22 Osprey doesn’t appear to be a jet (tilt rotor)
Hawker Hurricane not a jet - warbird
P38 lightning : twin engine warplane, not a jet
You might consider adding these two:
Fokker dr.1 (the red baron) missing (flightsim.to I think)
Mitsubishi Zero missing. (I think Romantic Wings)
Thanks for the reply and input! 
It’s a start! Trying to get my head around pivot tables but can’t seem to get it to do what I want/need currently. Will attack it again soon, haha
Second person that had said this, so OK will do!
But what title - just Piston GA? Or Touring GA? Or… xxxxx??
Ah yeah that was one I was going to highlight in my bullets above. There really isn’t a category for it without making one just for this but I thought people “interested” in military jets would also be interested in that (and that’s kind of the reason of these filters?)?
Could change the category name to Military Fighters or Modern Military? (Or something like that)
It is a jet though, isn’t it?! For Warbirds I mean like WW2 & WW1 styleee. Maybe Classic Warbirds is a better category name?
D’oh - I think I must have just glanced at it as being the F-35 when I was going through 
I’ll correct that thanks for spotting.
That’s because nobody has voted for them yet. This list is by no means a list of all available aircraft. Just ones that have ever been voted on, even if their votes were removed in users updates and read zero now.
With regard to issues like how to categorize things like the various JF PA28’s. If they are available a a bundle (the Arrow and Turbo Arrow are offered as a bundle) or the variant gets a discount (JF PA28s again or Kodiak and Floatiak) they could probably be classified in the same item.