Microsoft Flight Simulator’s 1930s air-racers let you pretend there’s a new Crimson Skies

rockpapershotgun.com:

Two more aircraft have dived into Microsoft Flight Simulator’s roster in its second Famous Flyers pack of paid DLC, the 1930s Gee Bee Super Sportster air-racers. The stubby-winged, compact Model Z and Model R-2 arrive as the game sees its ninth update, with plenty of bug fixes, a new Spotlight Event landing challenge and an authentic vapour cone for when you go supersonic in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Developers Asobo Studio have also patched in their own office in Bordeaux if you want to fly past and wave hello.

Air-racing was a big deal during the Golden Age of Flight in the years between global conflicts. The Granville Brothers Super Sportsters, or Gee Bees, were built to place first in the National Air Races of the time. Both models of the Gee Bee ended up crashing and were destroyed. You might’ve spotted a replica constructed of the Model Z in The Rocketeer, which has been scanned to reproduce the plane for Microsoft Flight Simulator. They’re stupidly fast but tricky to fly, and hard to land. Both planes can sport three liveries and have their original cockpits.

I usually think of Flight Simulator as a sedate time staring out of the cockpit at whatever bird’s eye grandeur is passing below, emitting the occasional "ooh!" or "ahh!" on the way. Firing up these bad boys for some sweet spins low and fast over deserts and seas, and high above cloudy metropolises, looks like it will really get that air-ace sense of adventure pumping though. I spent a ridiculous amount of time tricking out planes in the alternate sky-pirate world of Crimson Skies when I was a kid, so these Sportsters certainly float my dirigible.

If you want to spice up Microsoft Flight Simulator with the correct water height for Alaskan rivers or,