Hangar & Aircraft
The Hangar is where you manage the aircraft you own. It is the fourth tab in the left sidebar. This guide also covers the wider aircraft system: the six classes, how renting and buying work, the runway rules that decide where you can land, and how to tell FS Kingpin which aircraft you are flying.
Hangar vs Showroom
There are two separate tabs, and it helps to know which does what:
- Hangar manages aircraft you already own: where each one is parked, repairs, tail numbers, moving them around, and selling.
- Showroom is where you buy aircraft, both from the catalogue and as custom entries.
Renting does not have its own tab. You rent automatically when you accept a mission in an aircraft you do not own (see the Missions guide).
The six aircraft classes
Every aircraft belongs to one of six classes. Higher classes carry more, fly faster and farther, and open up the bigger, more valuable missions, but each one unlocks later as you rank up.
| Class | Type | Unlocks at |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Light Single | Level 1 |
| Class 2 | Light Twin | Level 8 |
| Class 3 | Turboprop | Level 16 |
| Class 4 | Light Jet | Level 22 |
| Class 5 | Medium Jet | Level 30 |
| Class 6 | Heavy / Airliner | Level 40 |
A mission is built for a class, and you need an aircraft of that class (or higher) to fly it, unless Free Skies is on. Your starter light single has no rental fee, so your first missions cost you nothing to fly.
Renting vs buying
Renting is pay-as-you-go. When you accept a mission in an aircraft you do not own, you pay that aircraft's rental fee for the run. It is the cheap way in early on, when you are only flying the odd mission.
Buying is the long game. You purchase an aircraft once in the Showroom and it is yours:
- No more rental fee every time you fly it.
- Your crew can fly it on dispatched runs (see the Crew & Smugglers guide).
- You can park it where you want and move it around your network.
If you cannot cover a purchase outright, the bank in the Tablet offers a credit line that unlocks alongside each aircraft class. You can sell an aircraft back later for 60 percent of what you paid.
Runway requirements
Bigger aircraft need longer, better runways. This decides which airports an aircraft can use, and which mission destinations show up for it.
| Class | Minimum runway | Surface |
|---|---|---|
| Light Single | 1,500 ft | grass or paved |
| Light Twin | 2,500 ft | grass or paved |
| Turboprop | 3,000 ft | grass or paved |
| Light Jet | 4,500 ft | grass or paved |
| Medium Jet | 6,500 ft | paved only |
| Heavy / Airliner | 7,500 ft | paved only |
Some short-field specialists beat their class default. A few turboprops and light jets are set up to get into much shorter strips than the table suggests, which opens up backcountry airports a normal jet could never use.
Telling FS Kingpin which aircraft you are flying
FS Kingpin reads the aircraft you have loaded in MSFS and tries to match it to its catalogue. The Hangar shows one of three states:
- Recognised: your aircraft matched the catalogue, and you see its name and stats.
- Unrecognised: MSFS reported an aircraft FS Kingpin does not know yet. You get a Copy name button and a + Create custom button.
- Not connected: no aircraft detected, because MSFS is not connected or you are not in a flight yet.
Copy name copies the aircraft's title to your clipboard so you can paste it in the FS Kingpin Discord and ask for it to be added in a future update. To use it right away instead, hit + Create custom (or open the Showroom and create a custom aircraft). A "Detect from MSFS" button fills in the aircraft's title for you, then you set its class, cargo, speed and range. If you ever map the wrong entry, the Hangar lets you reassign or remove the mapping.
Managing your fleet
The Hangar lists every aircraft you own, with a card for each type. Each card shows:
- Where it is: the airport it is parked at, or EN ROUTE with the crew member flying it.
- Its state: ready, in repair (with time remaining), or carrying cargo.
- Its record: missions flown, distance, cargo capacity, cruise speed and range.
- A tail number you can edit, handy when you own several of the same type (they show as a carousel).
You can sell an aircraft from its card for 60 percent of its price, as long as it is not in use, in repair, or loaded with cargo. Damaged aircraft repair on their own over time, and cannot be flown, dispatched, or sold until they are ready.
Travel and relocating aircraft
Two buttons sit at the top of the Hangar, and they do different things:
- Travel charters you to another airport you pick, for a fee. Your base of operations moves there, so the mission board and trading work from the new location. It is the same charter you can start from an airport on the Map.
- Relocate Aircraft ferries one of your planes to another airport for a fee. The aircraft moves, you do not, which is how you pre-position planes where you or your crew will need them. It appears once you own an aircraft, and a plane has to be parked (not in use or under repair) to move it.