Microsoft Flight Simulator's free Dune expansion is available now

Microsoft Flight Simulator's free Dune expansion is available now. It features the Royal Atreides Ornithopter from Denis Villeneuve's movies - with this entire DLC being a marketing tie-in with Dune: Part Two, which releases next month. It includes tutorials, time trials, and a "daring rescue mission".

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Dune Expansion Launch Trailer

I'm not a Dune guy, as I haven't read the books or seen any of the films. I know more about Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade Dune film than actual Dune. That ornithopter looks fun to fly, though, mainly because it can tuck in its wings and free-fall.

I like that this is a science fiction tie-in that sits within a die-hard, real world physics simulation, even if Earth has been swapped for Arrakis. Although apparently it's straightforward to get the Ornithopter flying around regular Earth, and regular planes flying above Arrakis.

The dune expansion was announced in June last year alongside the announcement for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, the "next generation" of the sim, which plans to add a full suite of aerial jobs including search and rescue, aerial firefighting, air ambulance, helicopter cargo transport, crop dusting, and more.

The same partnership also includes a custom Dune-themed Xbox and controller to be won if that's your thing.

Dune is not the first movie tie-in for Flight Simulator, although it's a measure more surprising than 2022's Top Gun update.