Cameron

Boundless has announced the development of Glasgow Prestwick Airport (EGPK) for X-Plane 11 and 12. As the second busiest airport in Glasgow, Scotland, it serves an average of 445,211 passengers annually. Prestwick Airport officially opened in 1935, though it had operated as an airfield since the early 1910s. Passenger facilities were added in 1938 and later upgraded to accommodate jet aircraft. During World War II, the RAF used Prestwick as a trans-Atlantic gateway for US Army personnel and as a training base for RAF pilots. After the war, Prestwick began commercial operations, including a transatlantic route to New York. The main runway was extended in 1960 from 2,100 meters to its current length of 3,000 meters. In the early 1990s, the airport faced significant challenges until Canadian entrepreneur Matthew Hudson took over, constructing a railway station that made it the first Scottish airport with direct rail access. Ryanair began operating at Prestwick in 1994, gradually expanding routes to destinations like Dublin, London Stansted, and Paris-Beauvais. Ownership of the airport changed several times, with the Stagecoach Group taking over in 1998, followed by Infratil in 2001, which revamped the terminal in 2005. The Scottish government acquired the airport for a nominal sum in 2013. Today, Ryanair serves Prestwick with flights to destinations such as Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, Málaga, and Tenerife-South. Currently, there is no information on the release date, pricing, or features of the Boundless rendition of Prestwick Airport.

Laminar Research has previewed the upcoming X-Plane 12.1.0 update on their blog, currently in private testing and set for a public beta release soon. This update will bring several enhancements, including graphical improvements, flight model tweaks, and weather upgrades. Originally intended as a graphics-focused update, it also includes new aircraft systems, an improved flight model, enhancements to the weather and ATC systems, and the introduction of a physics-based camera that moves with the aircraft. Key graphical improvements include cloud shadows on water, bloom lighting effects, adaptive sharpening for better contrast, softer ground shadows, MSAA enhancements, improved CPU performance, and refined water opacity and turbidity. A new screenshot utility with depth of field and exposure controls is also included, alongside new particle effects such as sparks from pavement collisions, ground spray, and visibility effects during helicopter and powered lift operations. The update significantly upgrades aircraft systems, particularly the G1000 simulation, which now features ADS-B simulation, stormscope and traffic map pages, METAR flags, NDB and VOR pages, WAAS/Test Satellite Constellation, and improved plugin interoperability. Glass avionics will now be integrated via plugins, facilitating easier implementation by developers. The flight model will include a manual flap system, dial-a-flap functionality, electric clutches for helicopters, and single-lever control for turboprops, where applicable. The weather system will utilize a new server, improving METAR parsing for more realistic representation, and reducing blockiness in cloud visuals. Finally, the update introduces a physics-based camera system that adjusts based on aircraft acceleration, though this may arrive in version 12.1.0 or a subsequent update. An official release date for the update has not yet been announced.