The original 737-100 had its maiden flight in 1967 and was first used in service by Lufthansa starting in 1968. Since then, there have been many variants of the 737. There are in  fact more Boeing 737-800’s in use today than any other narrow body commercial aircraft, so it makes sense that Laminar Research decided to include the iconic 737 in X-Plane 11.

Shortly after X-Plane 11 was released, Zibo began working on an improved version of the popular aircraft. Zibo worked with real-world 737 pilots, and others in the flight sim community, to create what has become known as the Zibo mod. The first rendition of the Zibo mod 737 was released in January 2018, with the blessing of Laminar Research. It has become a perfect example of the great things that a group of motivated flight simmers, pilots, and programmers can create. Dozens of pilots, and hundreds of people from the flight sim community, have contributed their time and skills to this aircraft model, which is now enjoyed by thousands of sim pilots around the globe.

Since then, the Zibo mod has become the number one choice for airliners in home flight-sim cockpit builds. The current version boasts a vast variety of features which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Interior equipment variations
• External visual customizations such as split scimitar winglets
• Custom EFB for customizing the aircraft, fuel, payload, cabin announcements, and more
• Custom FMC
• FMOD sounds
• Improved flight model

FlightDeck2Sim, a real-world 737 pilot and well known flight-sim streamer, said the following last year on social media:

“ZIBO MOD has been modified by Real 737 Pilots with feedback from Line 737 Pilots for the past 5 years to ensure it handles as closely to the real things in all phases. It will never be absolutely perfect within the confines of a desktop simulator but in the case of this stream, i've just flown 5 days on the line and jumped into the [ZIBO] MOD, it was hard to tell the difference.”

The Zibo mod community and their contributions have lead to a superb aircraft, which might be nearly unmatched in the flight sim add-on market. 

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The Zibo mod has certainly stood the test of time and only grown stronger as one of the best addon aircraft for X-Plane, this freeware masterpiece has improved year on year and is set for an even brighter future. 

Download and try the Zibo mod for free, and I think you’ll agree. Just make sure you follow the installation and training guide using the link 

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