The next large update to Laminar Research's X-Plane is upon us, with the release of 11.40. While not quite as big as 11.30, today's update brings with it many behind the scenes changes - namely to the flight model.

This is due to creator Austin Meyer's added experience with real-world planes following flight testing of his own plane: Ava, an aircraft modelled almost entirely in X-Plane's Plane Maker. To learn more about Ava, check out an article spotlight on the VTOL craft.

11.40 began it's public beta life in early September, and has since seen 10 incremental versions up until 11.40r2, which dropped today.

The changelog for this update is extensive - it's available in list form below.

Release Candidate 2

• XPD-10325 APU N1 is saved for replay using the correct scale now.
• XPD-10366 Fixed crash when tracking to YMUL GNSS RW23 MULEH.
• XPD-10369 G1000 MFD track-up route leg plotting error.

Release Candidate 1

• New datarefs:
• XPD-10269 GPU time for debugging.
• XPD-10347 Wing stalls.
• XPD-10350 Access to 3-d proj matrix from 2-d UI call.
• Tweaks to AI landings & interaction with ATC.
• XPD-8169 DELTA and ABS DELTA replay properly in .snd files.
• XPD-8754 Replay recreates wheel impact sounds.
• XPD-10225 Critical altitude for electric motors.
• XPD-10325 Replay recreates APU N1 for sound.

Beta 9

• Body shadowing code improvements for speed with high numbers of FM iterations
• X-Plane uses the right reynolds numbers for airfoils even if the order is entered backward in the .afl file.
• XPD-10058 Added a link to the complete Gateway contributors list.
• XPD-10342 The same IP and port must not mean the same app.
• XPD-10349 Instanced objects go nuts when sim is paused.
• XPD-10352 Stall speed fixed when experimental FM is off.
• XPD-10354 Fixed NaN crash with AB412 Helicopter, when using zero size weapons.
• XPD-10355 Fixed override_engines to not double engine forces.

Beta 8

• Minor German text fixes.
• NaN fixes.

Beta 7

• Better AI airliner landings.
• XPD-10320 Fixed nosewheel steering with experimental FM on.
• XPD-10333 We now log if the experimental FM is turned on or off.
• XPD-10336 S-76 torque number fix.
• XPD-10338 Fixed afterburner thrust for pre-11.40 aircraft.

Beta 6

• New feature: authors can specify preferred climb speed for AI aircraft use.
• SF-50 trim settings tweaked by Austin.
• Fixed buildings missing at KSEA & LOWI.
• Fixed local date being wrong when it’s past midnight GMT but early evening locally and track system date and time is in use.
• Fixed crash at KSAV if trying to contact tower.
• New log messages for bad ATC Frequencies that are in the navaid freq range.
• Autostall recovery tweaked a bit.
• Adjustments to how AI aircraft climb, hold altitude and fly final approach to TDZ.
• XPD-10313 S76 Radio Altimeter Error.
• XPD-10326 Fixed engine override dataref.

Beta 5

• Latest Gateway airports added.
• Fix for flight model crashes.
• AI tuning & push back truck force adjusted.
• XPD-10321 Bleed air commands doesn’t modify bleed mode.

Beta 4

• XPD-9793 Save all random seeds in sit/rep, not just wxr.
• XPD-10294 FM fixes for vortex ring state.
• XPD-10307 Fixed propwash swirl.
• XPD-10309 FM fixes for for helicopter (VRS/Wash).
• XPD-10310 Fixed GPS error when course is < 360 as double, but not < 360 as float.
• XPD-10311 Fixed missing decals on desktop.

Beta 3

• Weather & time fixes to .sit & .rep files.
• G1000 now displays “LOADING”, just like the real one does when it re-projects the map.
• XPD-8560 Carrier ILS frequencies off unless using military plane or helicopter, carrier approach, or auto tune radios.
• XPD-10256 GPS OBS is now decoupled from OBS in VLOC mode.
• XPD-10278 Fixed missing headers in data output.
• XPD-10290 Melding of approaches and transitions works again.
• XPD-10293 External visual weather or time not synced with master.
• XPD-10295, XPD-10296 Fixed wind “calm zone” being to high.
• XPD-10298 Restored custom “master caution” from plugins.

Beta 2

• Updated joystick configs & manuals.
• Updated code signing for upcoming macOS Catalina.
• XPD-7964 Fixed weapon view.
• XPD-9083 Fix the map around the international date line.
• XPD-10240, XPD-10291 Fixed bug where blank named roads would always be treated
• as one way.
• XPD-10273 Restored aliases for old command names.
• XPD-10289 Wake turbulence makes light aircraft explode.

Beta 1

• XPD-8518 Incorrect metar QNH interpretation (/// entries).
• XPD-9659 Propwash flow in reverse incorrectly swirls behind the prop disk and flows ‘straight’ after the prop disk
• XPD-9872 Ground trucks slow to a crawl when passing on the same network segment.
• XPD-9984 Update UI to indicate GPS commands work with G530.
• XPD-9969 Make oil temperature datarefs editable.
• XPD-10003 In some planes turning on and off the Landing lights has no effect on battery amperage draw.
• XPD-10005 Area-ruled correction factor added to Plane Maker.
• XPD-10017 Removed duplicate DRM alert.
• XPD-10199 Wetted area in cycle dump documentation updated.
• XPD-10227 Updated docs for sim/flightmodel2/controls/left & right_brake_ratio.

To update, simply re-run the X-Plane 11 Installer. For Steam users, the application will auto-update for you.

The Laminar team recently presented at Flight Sim Show 2019, which took place at RAF Cosford. To see our full recap from the presentation, check out our article here.