Precision Manuals Development Group

Precision Manuals Development Group (often abbreviated as PMDG) is a commercial add-on aircraft developer for the Microsoft Flight Simulator,^[1] Lockheed Martin Prepar3D,^[2] and X-Plane^[3] series. The company was founded by airline pilot Robert S. Randazzo, who stated that his ultimate goal was to develop the software to the point where it could be used by airlines and manufacturers to supplement pilot training.^[4] The company is based out of Virginia but has several employees in countries such as Belgium, South Africa, and Canada.^[4] It has eight employees as of 2018, with a collection of beta testers which include multiple aviation professionals.

PMDG's software has received praise for its realism.^[4][5]

Company background[]

The company began by producing detailed flight manuals, hence its name. However, the company soon moved on to developing add-on aircraft after creating only two manuals for the Microsoft Flight Simulator, 747 and 757. The first aircraft development was a package of the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 for the Fly! simulator, which could be played on Macintosh or PC. On 25 October 2014, it was announced on PMDG's AVSIM forum, that the Boeing 777-200LR base package will be available on the Prepar3D platform.^[6]

With employees and contractors working around the world, PMDG is headquartered in Northern Nevada, approximately 15 nm north of Reno-Tahoe International Airport. On June 4, 2012, PMDG announced that they would move back to Virginia, where the company was founded.

Aircraft[]

PMDG has created nine aircraft for Flight Simulator 2004 and ten aircraft for Flight Simulator X, two of which are extensions of the 747-400X. The PMDG Boeing 737 NGX is for Flight Simulator X and Prepar3d only and is currently available in 737-800/900 winglet/non-winglet models. The 737-600/700 winglet/non-winglet models are a continuation of the base package and are available as an expansion. The 777-200LR and accompanying 777-300ER expansion were the first PMDG products for Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D V2 which was released on February 7, 2015, as well as Flight Simulator X (the NGX was patched to P3D V2 compatibility after the 777). These two products are widely regarded as some of the best offerings for flight simulation in terms of system depth, fidelity, and function, as well as faithful exterior modelling, sound, and flight dynamics.^{[citation needed]}

On June 1, 2016, PMDG released the Douglas DC-6 simulation, marking the first aircraft by the company for the X-Plane series of flight simulators.^[7]

With the arrival of P3D v4, the 747, 777 and 737 aircraft are being freely upgraded from P3D v3 (32 bit) to P3D v4 (64 bit). On February 24, 2019, it was announced that no new products would be developed for 32-bit platforms (not precluding updates to existing products).^[8] Thus, the B747-8 was the last release for 32-bit platforms, notably marking the end of 13 years of FSX support.^{[citation needed]} On November 8, 2019, the PMDG NGXu was released. It is a version of the upcoming NG3 product for the Prepar3D platform, and offers the BCF, BDSF, BBJ1 and BBJ2 variants as expansions to the base product. The NG3 itself will only be available on the new Microsoft Flight Simulator due in 2020, with expansion packs covering the entire NG, BBJ, and MAX product lines. PMDG announced the previous day that all development for the X-Plane platform as well as all 32-bit platforms would be canceled.^[9] On October 20, 2020, PMDG announced the development of the 777X family of airliners was in an early stage.^[10] In mid June 2021, all products for X-Plane and FSX were retired ahead of the release of their first product for MSFS20.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website