Realistic 2 is Gate & Globe's second world, and it starts fifteen years earlier than the first. It opens for founding airlines on Monday 26 October at 17:00 UTC and its clock starts on Friday 30 October at 17:00 UTC, with everyone on the same day: 1 January 1970.
The world
| Era | 1 January 1970 to 1 January 2030, 60 years |
| Pace | 216×: a game day every 6 min 40 s, a month every 3 h 20 min, a year every 1.7 days |
| Opens | Mon 26 Oct 2026, 17:00 UTC |
| Clock starts | Fri 30 Oct 2026, 17:00 UTC |
| Ends | about 9 Feb 2027 |
| Companies | 2 per player: one airline and one leasing company |
| Starting capital | $50M in 2020 dollars, about $7.5M on 1 January 1970 |
| Rules | Realistic: historic traffic rights, closed airspace, aircraft sold within their bloc, real fuel and inflation, the period's world events |
Why 1970
The widebody era starts the week the clock does. The 747 is new, the DC-10 arrives in 1971, the TriStar in 1972, the A300 in 1974 and Concorde in 1976. Most of the world still flies 707s, DC-8s, Caravelles, Viscounts and propliners, and whoever reads the next type right gets years on everyone else.
The world around you moves the way it did:
- Fuel: about 4 cents a kilo in 1972, more than double by early 1974 after the oil shock, and up again in 1979. A fleet bought for cheap fuel can sink you.
- The Iron Curtain: Soviet airspace is closed to airlines outside the bloc until 1991, apart from the corridors into Moscow and Leningrad and the trans-Siberian route with a stop in Moscow. China stays closed until 1980. East German airspace is shut to West German airlines.
- Markets opening: foreign airlines can't fly domestic routes, and flights between two foreign countries need an agreement. Europe opens in steps through the EC packages of 1987, 1990 and 1993 and becomes a single market in 1997, then open-skies agreements, EU–US open skies in 2008 and the rest follow.
- Slots, ETOPS and the events of the period: slot-controlled airports of the era, twins held to 60 minutes from a diversion airport until ratings extend it, and the recessions, wars, groundings, Olympics and World Cups of six decades.
Sixty years is long enough to grow a company from a pair of turboprops into a global network, live through the shocks, and still be flying when the A350s arrive.
One airline, one lessor
Each player runs one airline and, if they want, one leasing company beside it. One airline means no side carriers feeding the main one: what you build is your airline. A leasing company buys aircraft and leases them to other players' airlines, including your rivals. Leasing companies need First Officer or Captain membership.
Playing both worlds
Realistic 1 keeps running (it's in 1987 now). You can play both. Flight Crew can be in five worlds at once, so nobody has to choose.
Before the clock starts
Join the season any time from Monday. Nothing can be done or queued until 17:00 UTC on Friday, so everyone starts together on 1 January 1970. You can still join after the clock starts, but gates and slots at the busy airports go to whoever asks first.
Questions about the world are welcome below, and the vote is open for where you'll base your airline.