BRITE radar · ASDE ground surveillance · Voice communications · Aircraft & scenery
Website · Original project repository · Releases
Project status — November 2026: This is an independent, in-development reconstruction inspired by BAO Tower, not a fully accurate emulator or an official BAO/Microsoft release. Promotional artwork is concept imagery; archival screenshots depict the original application.
Guide flights from initial contact to landing, taxi or departure. Tower combines a classic Windows-style control tower interface with a new C#/.NET simulation engine. This reconstruction is informed by original documentation, assets and observations of the 1990s simulator.
| System | What's included |
|---|---|
| TowerView | Interactive airport viewpoint, original aircraft meshes and selected scenery/panoramas |
| BRITE | Airborne traffic radar, range controls, targets and labels |
| ASDE | Ground radar, runway and taxiway traffic |
| Aircraft & traffic | Arrival and departure flows, runway clearances and taxi handling |
| Radio | Classic VOC phrase composition or optional Windows speech, with radio effects |
| Flight strips | Arrival/departure strip management and print preview |
| Sessions | Practice mode, controller scoring, save and resume |
| Controls | Typed ATC commands, pause and simulation speed adjustments |
Supported behavior is a reconstruction rather than a promise of historically exact flight dynamics, radar timing or scoring.
The runtime can compose phrases using recovered original voice banks and can use installed Windows English speech voices in its alternative speech mode. Original .VOC files and airport data are required.
AAL176/CL # Cleared to land
DAL253/T14 # Taxi toward runway 14
DAL253/HS9 # Hold short of runway 9
AAL176/ERB14R/CL # Combined instructions
The actual accepted commands depend on the current aircraft and runway state. The full user guide and command reference documentation provide further detail.
- Language / UI: C#, .NET, Windows Forms
- Simulation: Dedicated shared state for radar, tower view and strips
- Aircraft models: 44 original
.DBTcatalog types connected to TowerView - Scenery: Canyon assets and Washington/O'Hare panoramic source imagery
- Speech: Original 8-bit mono PCM at 8,900 Hz, plus Windows speech as an explicit alternative
- Testing: xUnit regression tests and Windows build validation
See the Releases page for published packages.
Found a problem with TOWER? Bug reports help us improve the simulator and preserve the classic experience.
Before submitting a report, please check existing issues to avoid duplicates. When opening a new issue, include:
- TOWER version and Windows version
- What happened and what you expected
- Steps to reproduce the problem
- Airport, scenario and commands used, if relevant
- Screenshots or logs, when useful (please remove private information)
Have an idea for an improvement, a new feature, or additional airport scenery? We'd love to hear it! Community suggestions are always welcome, whether you're rediscovering the original simulator or trying TOWER for the first time.
You can open a GitHub Issue to discuss an idea with the project or contact us directly.
For questions, feedback, collaboration or a friendly conversation about the project, contact Sibra-Soft:
We are always open to suggestions and ideas. For bugs that need tracking, please use GitHub Issues so progress stays visible.
This is an independent fan recreation. BAO Tower. The project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original publisher or Microsoft.