Lockheed Martin licenses Microsoft ESP platform

[beatle]

Today, Lockheed Martin announced it has licensed Microsoft's ESP platform to build new simulation solutions. See my blog post for links to the Press Release.

[FelixFFDS]

The obvious question - is there an "entertainment" fallout to the agreement, or is it strictly the commercial (gov't/industrial) applications of ESP?

Curious minds want to know...

In the meantime can we unjustifyingly speculate on a LockheedMartin/Micorosft FSXI, with no Boeing a/c, expanded Airbus fleets, especially an A330 based tanker, and an accurate JSF?

[beatle]

Lockheed is specifically excluded from the Entertainment market.

[FelixFFDS]

Well, there goes my fantasy bubble ...

[mendiola_loyola]

How will Microsoft give support to Lockheed about ESP if the ESP developers no longer work for Microsoft?

Did Microsoft sell the ESP source code to Lockheed?

That source code shouldn't be frozen.

Alfredo Mendiola Loyola
Lima, Perú

[beatle]

Hey Alfredo,

We haven't all left MS yet :-> I'm Lockheed's single point of contact for support, and anything I can't answer myself, I can reach out to other ex-ACES folks still inside MS. Lockheed's license did include source code and the right to create derivative works.

[Doia]

that's great news thanks for sharing! Hopefully sometime in the near future Lockheed will open some simulation related positions for developers I've been dying to work for them and nothing is better than a shift from their part towards an area in which I already have some experience

[FelixFFDS]

Tim - I actually like the arrangment, even if there's nothing in it for the entertainment user/hobbyist (although I can see there is a spot in the mix for many of the flightsim top end developers).


For me, it's a case of Microsoft saying "here's my recipe for a really neat apple pie, but I'm not going to keep on improving it. I'll let you rent the recipe, and you can make it better, and give me a piece of the pie."

Now, Lockheed Martin takes that recipe, and plays around with it, and it becomes, not Microsoft's apple pie, but Lockheed's pie with a "Microsoft crust".


Let's say Boeing wants to make an apple pie and also rents Microsoft's recipe. At first, the Boeing and Lockheed apple pies may look and taste the same, but after a few rounds in the testing kitchens of each, they'll almost be unrelated, except for that really tasty Microsoft secret seasoning...

Unfortunately, I'll have to settle (gee what a sacrifice) with Microsoft's original apple pie, and maybe get a tast of the pies from the smaller bakeries around (X-plane, Flight gear...)

I regret that we (the hobbyist) won't - anytime soon - be treated to the working independent suspension vehicles that was to come with ESP2.

But we can hope and dream, and after all, that's what's pushed this hobby through the years!

[mickthebike]

http://www.lmvwl.com/

Uups they removed some...wasn't that x-plane before? Is Lockheed still using other fs? Where did lmvwl go?

[Brian Franklin]

It's already happening Felix