How to Install a New Airplane in "FSX"

All sorts of new aircraft can be installed in FSX, from fighter jets to flying saucers.

If you've grown tired of the existing aircraft in Microsoft's Flight Simulator X (FSX) or simply have a hankering to try flying something unusual, there are thousands of new airplanes available for FSX that have been created by a community of professional and hobbyist aircraft designers. Installing them is a relatively straightforward process; if the developers have not provided a self-installing ".exe" file, you can install the aircraft manually by decompressing the archive and moving the folders into their appropriate destinations.

Instructions

1. Extract the aircraft's archive file to a new directory. If the file is in a ".zip" format, this can be done by opening the file in Windows Explorer and clicking "Extract all files." If the file is in the ".7z" or ".rar" format, you will need to use another program such as WinRAR or IZArc to extract it.

2. Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to the directory you set as the destination for the extraction of the aircraft's files. You will see a new folder with the name of the aircraft and, optionally, a "readme" file or picture of the aircraft. FSX does not need these and they can be deleted.

3. Open a second Windows Explorer window and navigate to your FSX directory. By default, this is located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X." However, if you selected a different install location, the folder may be called something different or be located in a non-standard directory.

4. Navigate to the "SimObjects" directory by double-clicking on it, and then double-click "Airplanes" to open that folder. You will see a separate folder for each aircraft in the game.

5. Drag the folder with the name of the new aircraft into the "SimObjects\Airplanes\" directory open in the second Explorer window. This installs the aircraft, making it available for the next time you start FSX.

Tips & Warnings

• If the aircraft came with new panel gauges or new effects, extracting the aircraft's archives will have created new folders for each of these. Drag the contents of the folders --- not the folders themselves --- into the "Gauges" and "Effects" folders, respectively, located in the root Flight Simulator X directory.

References

• Flight Sim.com: How To... Install FSX Aircraft; Andrew Herd; June 2007