I would think that native FSX aircraft could be compatable as the way FSX handels aircraft is not a problem and there is no reason that I know of not to make them compatable with Flight.
However I would not have any hope for anything older then FSX aircraft.

Let's not loss sight of the fact the the present code for MSFS is dated and very inefficient. Many have been saying for years that it needs to be rewitten  if MSFS is to surrvie and move forward.

Personally, I hope this time has come and if Flight is enought of a move forward, it will be worth it not to be backwards compatable with previous aircraft.
I'm shure MS is smart enough to make Flight not just a glorified FSX. "Flight" is to be the only MSFS for many years to come so it better be a FS for the 21st century.  

Quite the contrary acording to the lastest info from MS.
They said they dropped the word "simulator" purely for marketing reasons and Flight will definately be a simulator.
However, it will also include some features that will appeal to the more casual simmer and/or gamer without dumbing down the hard core flight simming experience.
Too many peple get turned off by the word "simulator"  and MS hopes to capture and win over that crowd and possibly make real  flight simmers out of them.
Keep in mind that the broader selling base MSFS has, the more secure the future of MSFS will be which can only be a good thing for us.   

ACES was disbanded due to the world economy and the fact that Vista was basically a flop.
Some former members of ACES are now working on flight and are continuing to work on the code that was mothballed when ACES was disbanded.

It's way too early and not nearly enough info is available to become  pessimistic at this point.
However, what info is currently available is encouraging 

The FSX coding is not as dated as one may think. I remember reading a post on Avsim a while back stating that one of the FSX developers said that FSX was in fact a modernization of the old code. The way I feel is that the modernization was not done right, so I suspect Flight will perfect the modernization of the old code.

I will go and try to find the post stating this info...



EDIT: Ah, here it is:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/293576-ms-flight-improvement-wish-list/page__view__...

From greggerm on Avsim:
Quote:

I'm not so experienced in aircraft designing , but I hope for the sake of MSFS community that at least they allow to export us again in gmax and 3d studio max in the new format our and my Humble models other wise this would be the sudden death of MSFS  ,Don't believe me ? have you seen how many simulator are? but one could be the replace of all MSFS , have you taken a trip all over INTERNET and see how PLANE X its growing?

I wish these M$ people see this ,
Of course this are words to the air, it will be my wishes only ,its M$ we're talking about  

Travis wrote on Dec 13^th, 2010 at 3:57am:


I really can't see the diference from gmax to 3d studio max 7 (Working at least to make airplanes) I have both and lately I rather use gmax which doesn't load so many stuff just a basic thing to make things for FS9/FSX game
Any real  developer can't see differences between 3d max and gmax ,ah only that Gmax export directly into MDL

Of course If I would still in my old job animating 3d logos in avi format ,I would require 3d max ,but that TV station not longer exist.

, there is a pdf of how to convert 3d max files into gmax and the first model that was converted was the SDK model DC-3  which is available every where as a learning tool.

  Maya its being on the market the same time as 3d max couple years left or more ,at the end Maya is also Old .

  Any good developer can do exacly the same thing with maya that with 3d studio max 3 I mean Gmax ,so at least to me Gmax its far from being absolette for doing and shaping cylinders, box etc.

Travis wrote on Dec 13^th, 2010 at 3:57am:


ITS THEIR JOB ,ITS OUR MONEY ,ITS WHAT THEY SHOULD DO , so I won't thanks them ,after all they never listen any one , BTW I paid for service pack 2 Buying Acceleration , I Paid for something they did wrong and fix it in a sp2 ,that's so Ilegal!!!
then every one wait some month to their SP2 get release it ,as it would be a favor ,WE PAID FOR THAT! or we will paid ..
I wonder if really ACE team was fire because of budgets or because they did a huge mistake 3 times FSX-FSX-SP1 and selling 3 month after release the SP2 ,.This also includes the FSX-SDK which didn't work either in the version we all bough , But we bought it AGAIN in acceleration..how legal is that? why changing the name to "flight" 


Quote:


[size=14]Microsoft Flight Simulator has reach to become the biggest and successful game of all times in the whole world  carrying and gathering entire communities in history for only ONE reason my friend ,FREEWARE DEVELOPERS , if those airplanes, sceneries ,TOOL for design (afcad ,flight simulator scenery creator) among many hundreds more made it for free and all the new stuff that INDEPENDENT people did to make FS better.

Microsoft Flight Simulator WOULD BE NOTHING with out them..
MSFS would be just another  Counter strike or Need for speed

Its is now that PAYWARES has grown up because of the FSX troubles, you are right in one thing you been here in this from a very long ago Ender ,when the FUN of FS2000 /FS2002/FS2004 was to Find the best freeware that used to be 20 per day I remember Looking for them  in here that's why I meet simviation  and join the forum in 2003 and  in other  sites ..
so FSX came up to screw the FUN because It becomes a game of WHO HAS THE MOST POWERFULL PC ,THE MOST EXPENSIVE CAPABLE TO RUN FSX HAVING THE BEST PERFORMANCE, and even some Gurus where hire to say If FSX doesn't work well  is your PC ..Mmm strange as soon ACES was fire that Guru vanished too..weird

This use to be a game of  who can flight and learn and tell their experiences in fs9, 8, 7, 6  ,the FSX-SDK was and still is unknown by many ,that still have to export using FS9-sdk
If FSX came to screw the party ,"Flight Will Kill it for ever"

I don't thanks them ,I'll tell them to go back AND SEE WHY MSFS IS WHAT IT IS EVEN TODAY ,BUT NOT IN FSX ,BACK IN FS9 TIMES

If they read this , yes please improve and above all FIX  anything you want , but don't come up with another 3d tool design , that will kill the real nature of MSFS culture

  there is a huge entire comunity that ahs leanr how to work in gmax and 3d max tool ,YOU M$ came and change that and that's it ,the end of all this ..

 

Quote:


But of course it was: I don't own FSX, since my setup can't run it.  I also didn't want to learn the FSX SDK because of all of the hassle's with the sim you mentioned above.

I'm not pretending to think that I know better.  I just believe that, just as the legacy coding is outdated, so is Gmax.  It was intended to service FS8 and 9, but doesn't have powerful enough tools to work the true magic of FSX without major tweaking and XML coding.  These issues could be taken care of by a newer, updated version of something similar to Gmax, perhaps based off of the current Maya version.

I use Max 9, and I can definitely tell the difference between Gmax and Max.

Personally, I would prefer for them not to offer ANY backwards compatibility with older add-ons. I hope they use a better, more advanced aircraft modeling system and supporting older add-ons would only add bloat and the possibility of MORE bugs in the new game.