VSKYLABS Robinson R22 Development News Flash

By concept, all three VSKYLABS Robinson projects (R22/R44/R66) weredeveloped side by side in a tremendous effort and coordination. TheR66 was the first to reach v1.0 milestone, followed eight months laterby the R44 v1.0 release which was an important stage in thedevelopment of several important aspects of the VSKYLABS R22. The R44v1.0 was also an important milestone in the preparations of the 2ndVSKYLABS R66 variant (planned with the classic analog cockpit anwithin the project development scheduled road-map).

However, during development, it got clear that the R22 developmenteffort must be shifted down in priorities, for various (good)reasons...

Among the reasons is the fact that the R22 helicopter appearance inthe flight-sim world (and in X-Plane) got a bit "flooded"...and therewas no good reason to add an additional R22, for sure not before theR66 and R44 helicopters, which were "needed" in X-Plane with a widerand deeper simulation scope...

Developing and updating add-on aircraft/helicopters is a *huge*effort that takes months and years to complete. So while the VSKYLABSR22 development was shifted down in priorities (while going up in"quantity"), the R22 development resources were channeled to otherfascinating VSKYLABS projects (including other helis and gyros), andallowed to execute several important existing projects updates,earlier.

At the present, the VSKYLABS R66, R44 and the Cabri G2 are coveringthe major target categories for mainstream, popular training andgeneral aviation helicopters simulation. So with the several existingR22's out there, there is no severe *void* left with thisdecision.

In the light of the above, shifting the R22 down in priorities is agood call in several aspects.

At the present, the VSKYLABS Robinson R22 Project is servingin-house for various testing and development purposes. It is stillconsidered as an active-development project but it is on a lowerpriority and it will be released when time is right. The exact timeframe for this has not been set yet.

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