Getting Started5 min read
What is Project Airports?
Project Airports lets you claim a real plot of land anywhere on Earth, design an airport on it in your browser, and have that airport show up in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - for you and for everyone else who flies with us. No SDK, no DevMode, no file wrangling.
The idea
MSFS 2024 streams the whole planet, but almost all of it is empty of the airports people actually dream about: the farm strip behind your house, a bush field on a gravel bar, a regional hub where your flying club meets. Building one normally means learning the SDK. Project Airports replaces all of that with a browser editor and a small desktop app that installs finished airports into your sim automatically.
Everything is shared. When someone builds a field in New Zealand and publishes it, it appears in your sim too - the world slowly fills up with community-built airports, and there's an in-game currency (Aeros) that rewards flying between them.
The loop
- Claim - pick a cell of real land (roughly 9 km across) on the Claim Map. Your first claim is free.
- Build - lay runways, taxiways, and aprons; place hangars, trees, and landmarks in the browser editor. See A tour of the builder.
- Compile - hit Build & sync and our build servers turn your design into a real MSFS scenery package.
- Fly - the free companion appinstalls your airport (and everyone else's) into the sim, and pays you Aeros while you fly.
- Grow - spend Aeros on more land, bigger buildable areas, paved surfaces, and decor. Repeat.
What you need
- To build: just a browser and a free account. Design works on any machine - nothing to install.
- To fly: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on Windows, plus the free companion app from the download page. The app is what carries airports into the sim and reports your flights for Aeros.
- To try it with zero commitment: the live demo opens the real editor on a real community airport - no account, no download.
Words we use
- Aeros (Ⓐ)
- The in-game currency. Earned by flying and being around; spent on land, surfaces, and objects. Rough anchor: $1 ≈ Ⓐ1,000. See How the economy works.
- Claim
- One cell of real-world land (~9 km across) that you own. One claim holds one airport.
- Buildable area
- The circle inside your claim where everything must fit. It has five levels, from a 750 m Airstrip to a 2 km Sprawling hub. See Buildable area & levels.
- Build
- Compiling your saved design into an MSFS scenery package on our build servers. Queued, usually done in minutes.
- Sync
- The companion app copying finished packages into your sim's Community folder - always while MSFS is closed. See Syncing to MSFS.
- Supporter
- A one-time contribution ($25+ unlocks the in-sim kit) that funds the project and adds perks. See Supporter perks.