Dear Friends,

Our team has some important news.

Update 5.101 Coming Next Week

Update 5.101 is in the final stages of preparation - this Friday we are preparing its Release Candidate and doing the final testing. The release of the update is scheduled for next week - this also will be the official release of the Flying Circus Volume II. The map has been significantly redesigned and looks nothing like the early access version. The World War I Pilot Career mode has been completed - the tours of duty of the historical squadrons, various, new mission types are added while existing ones are updated to be suitable for World War I are all in.

In addition to the Flying Circus release, the update 5.101 includes new Collector Plane Spitfire Mk.XIVe Bubbletop - one of the late modifications of the famous British fighter, the main visual difference is a new teardrop canopy, providing a better field of view to the pilot.

Also, the new campaign Wings over Caen we told you about in DD#338 will be released as well. Get ready for the hectic Typhoon action over Normandy! All owners of Battle of Normandy get this campaign for free.

Li-2 Announcement

We would also like to announce we are working on the Soviet transport aircraft Li-2 with our partners at "Yugra-Media".  In order to keep the historical authenticity, we create the airplane on the base of earlier produced American transport aircraft C-47 "Skytrain" that was known in the USSR as "Douglas".

Unlike the original Douglas, the Li-2 has been used as a bomber too - we reflected this with the appropriate equipment. The list of changes to the original aircraft is quite extensive:

• The Soviet plane is equipped with completely different engines.
• The Li-2 carries defensive armament, including a spherical UBT machine gun on the roof.
• The transport cockpit has to be built from scratch, as it uses Soviet instruments.
• There are other differences in aircraft design (cargo doors, etc.).

The screenshots show the work we have done to build the model. The Li-2 flight model and Soviet paratrooper 3d models for it are in the works.

This famous Eastern Front aircraft will be available in summer 2023. Stay tuned!

Skin Design Contest

Many of you know about the community made utility for sharing and downloading aircraft skins - Haluter's Skin Downloader. It's been only 2 years since its launch and it has reached an amazing 10.000+ unique community-made skins. To celebrate this, its team has decided to run a 10K Uploads Skin Design Contest that everyone can participate in! You can submit a design for an Air Racing Skin and/or Fictional Custom Skin which will then be created for IL-2 GB by one of the 6 talented skin artists and judges!

Head over to the contest thread to learn about how you can enter and what prizes you can win!