Interview With Infinite Flight – The Most Comprehensive Flight Simulator

This week, we got to interview the wonderful team from Infinite Flight. They have been one of the most driven and passionate individuals we have come across and we love how they’ve managed to spread this passion across a wonderful community of flight enthusiasts. You can clearly see these qualities reflected in the absolutely stellar app they have developed.

With a large amount of flight simulation games present in the app store, what does your app feature that sets itself apart from the competition?

From day one, Infinite Flight has tried to make community engagement a primary focus. Before we released global flight and multiplayer, our community had a strong VA and VO presence. This isn’t so much a feature of the app, but the culture that surrounds the simulator. As we moved into multiplayer with ATC, the community presence was huge. Other similar apps have many of the same features we do and who is better can be subjective. We feel what sets us apart is our dedicated, global community which helps us strive for bigger and better things!

What were the major challenges you’ve faced during the inception of the app?

At inception, our biggest challenge was doing real-time graphics on a mobile device. 8 years ago, this was more of an issue with very low performance devices. As we progressed, implementing global satellite imagery and multiplayer came with huge challenges on mobile. Our system was built with static regions in which pilots could fly. Global flight was a completely different system and required a lot of new coding. In addition to these major challenges, supporting android devices with so many different configurations remains something we’re constantly working on. 

We see that you’ve managed to grow quite an extensive community of passionate flight enthusiasts. How have you managed to nurture this wonderful community and how have they been beneficial towards the development of your app?

Yes, as you can tell by the first answer, this is huge for us. Part of nurturing and thriving community is listening to them, knowing how to tune out the non-constructive negativity (that can be so very loud sometimes), and having some fun along the way. A community loves and needs to feel engaged and part of the action. When we hit the road for in-person events like FlightSimExpo and AirVenture at Oshkosh, we make as much time as we can to hang out with community members and get to know them. The results of this are profound and we have made lasting friendships this way as well. This becomes beneficial in our app development when we have a dedicated team of private beta testers, moderators, and even staff as a result who provide help, feedback, and ideas to make the app better. 

How has the global pandemic affected the usage of your app? Surely there are many aspiring pilots who feel that their dreams have been crushed. Do you feel that your app could bring a positive light to the situation?

Of course the pandemic has been difficult for so many. We have seen a spike in user activity on our live servers, as well as our community forum. Aviation YouTubers have taken to their channels to discuss various ways pilots can stay sharp, and Infinite Flight is often mentioned as a way to help. Pilot apps like ForeFlight are showing users how they can connect to Infinite Flight to keep their skills up while at home. The aviation community is a passionate one, and we are thrilled that we can be a part of helping feed their love of flying even when airports and flight schools are closed.

What are some of the new features that you guys plan to add as you progress through the app store charts?

Version 20.1 of Infinite Flight is about to launch and it brings a complete set of real-world navigation data that no other mobile flight simulator has which includes instrument departures, arrivals, and approaches. Our developer team is working on a new graphics pipeline that we’re calling Project Metal This will allow us to add 3D objects such as buildings, airport terminals, ground service vehicles, and landmarks. It will also facilitate the addition of realistic lighting and shadows. 

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to know more about the app, we’ve compiled a list of useful resources. Feel free to check them out! (you wont regret it)