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Flight sim veteran Jim Mackonochie passes away

A Royal Navy officer and key influence on the flight sim genre, Jim Mackonochie founded UK-based publisher Mirrorsoft in 1982, before going on to produce Su-27 Flanker and many other titles.

Kris Ligman, Blogger

April 26, 2013

2 Min Read
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Flight sim veteran Jim Mackonochie passed away on April 23rd after a long battle with liver cancer. A Royal Navy officer and key influence on the flight simulation genre, Mackonochie founded UK-based publisher Mirrorsoft in 1982, which was responsible for bringing a number of Cinemaware titles and computer versions of Tetris to the UK market. Mirrorsoft and its US sister company Sphere then went on to publish flight sim genre forerunner Falcon. Over his 31-year career Mackonochie worked on a number of other projects including Su-27 Flanker (1996) and Lock On: Modern Air Combat (2003), as well as military simulations under TFC. Eagle Dynamics producer Matt Wagner broke the news on the company's official forums.

It is with a very heavy heart that I want to relay that our dear friend and compatriot Jim Mackonochie (JimMack) died of liver cancer today. Jim, the son of a British test pilot was a Royal Navy officer before being a key figure in the birth of PC flight simulation. Jim was pivotal in the launch of the original Falcon and many other software entertainment products before he served as the catalyst that brought The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics together to launch the original Su-27 Flanker. In the years that followed, Jim served as the primary business development manager for TFC/Eagle Dynamics and was responsible for DCS products being available in dozens of countries around the world. But Jim was also one of the most genuine people you could hope to meet and he was a common sight at many fly-in, air shows, and industry events. Like most people that excel in their field, Jim always had a true passion for this work and always pushed our team to provide the best product possible. Jim would spend hours going over reviews, customer feedback, and of course these very forums to provide the best possible perspective of what the customers wanted. He really was the customers' producer. Jim will be deeply missed here and his passing leaves a hole in TFC and Eagle Dynamics that can never be filled.

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