Find an aircraft carrier in FSX or Steam Edition, learn why there is no ICAO code, fix missing ships and choose a predictable carrier add-on.
The fastest way to find an aircraft carrier in FSX or FSX: Steam Edition is to load the Acceleration Carrier Tutorial mission, which starts you on or near a working carrier. In Free Flight, carriers are moving AI ships rather than airports, so they have no stock ICAO code or one permanent coordinate.
How do I go straight to an FSX aircraft carrier?
The Acceleration Carrier Tutorial is the quickest reliable route to a carrier with a usable flight deck, catapult and arresting wires.
- Confirm that you have Acceleration content. FSX: Steam Edition includes the relevant content. With boxed FSX, install the Acceleration expansion supplied with FSX Gold or purchased separately. Standard or Deluxe alone does not include the complete carrier system.
- Open the Missions screen. Find the Carrier Tutorial or another carrier-related Acceleration mission. On a localised installation, the displayed title may be translated, so check the mission descriptions as well.
- Load the tutorial. It supplies the appropriate aircraft and places a scripted carrier nearby, removing the need to search the sea or match an AI traffic schedule.
Installing Service Pack 2 on boxed FSX Deluxe is not the same as installing Acceleration. It updates core simulator files but does not add the Acceleration missions, aircraft and carrier content.
Which method should I use to find a carrier?
Choose the mission for immediate practice, stock Free Flight traffic for an unscripted encounter, or an add-on when you need repeatable carrier operations.
| Method | Best choice when | Location behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier Tutorial mission | You want the fastest working carrier | The mission places it for you |
| Stock Free Flight carrier | You want normal AI ship traffic | Moves according to an installed route and simulation time |
| Add-on carrier or placement utility | You want predictable training near your aircraft | Uses its own route, fixed scenery position or spawning tool |
Where are the carriers in FSX Free Flight?
Stock Free Flight carriers travel on scheduled AI shipping routes, so searching for them by airport name or flying to one permanent coordinate will not work.
- Raise ship traffic. In the traffic display settings, set
Ships and ferriesabove zero. Use 100 per cent temporarily while diagnosing the problem, then reduce it if performance suffers. - Search offshore. Carriers are boats, not airports, and can be some distance from the coast or between the route positions shown in an old guide.
- Change the simulation time. AI ship position depends on its schedule. Empty water at one time does not prove the carrier is missing.
- Ignore the airport selector. Searching for “carrier” or “Nimitz” there will not find a stock AI ship. It is also not represented like an airport or normal waypoint on the GPS.
Increasing scenery complexity does not make scheduled ships appear; the Ships and ferries traffic setting is the relevant control.
Is there an exact point (genauer Punkt), coordinate or ICAO code?
There is no universal FSX carrier coordinate or stock ICAO code because the Free Flight carrier moves and is not defined as an airport.
If you need a coordinate for reference, load the Carrier Tutorial, approach or sit on the deck, and press Shift+Z until the aircraft latitude and longitude appear. That records your position at that moment, not a permanent carrier location; the ship continues moving when the simulation resumes.
This is why a coordinate copied from a guide written in 2010 may lead to empty sea. It may depend on a particular simulation time, route file or add-on configuration. A static scenery carrier can have a fixed position, and an add-on author may assign a fictional airport identifier, but neither applies to the stock moving carrier.
I cannot find them — why is the FSX carrier missing?
A missing carrier is usually caused by absent Acceleration content, disabled ship traffic, the wrong simulation time or modified boat-traffic files.
- The Carrier Tutorial is absent: check that Acceleration is installed. Steam users can verify the simulator files through the Steam client, although modified default files should be backed up first.
- The mission works but Free Flight is empty: the installation is probably sound; check
Ships and ferries, simulation time and the search area. - Other ships are also absent: look for a disabled or replaced boat-traffic BGL introduced by an add-on.
- Only an add-on carrier is absent: confirm that its scenery, model library and traffic or placement component were all installed and enabled. Copying only the visible model is often insufficient.
- The carrier appears only sometimes: that is normal for a route-based AI ship. Use a placement utility or scripted mission if you need it beside the aircraft on demand.
Where can I get one predictable carrier for FSX?
For a repeatable alternative to the stock schedule, use a carrier package designed for FSX AI traffic or on-demand placement.
Our moving and landable USS Nimitz carrier group for FSX and Steam Edition provides a practical starting point. Read its included instructions because the carrier model, traffic route and placement component may require separate installation steps.
If you have the files but cannot make the ship appear, follow our steps for installing a carrier and enabling it in Free Flight. A mistake we see constantly is installing the ship model while omitting the AI route or placement utility that tells FSX where to display it.
Can I take off and land on any visible carrier?
No. A carrier must have a solid flight deck and correctly configured catapult and arresting zones, while the aircraft needs compatible launch and tailhook systems.
Falling through the deck usually means the model is decorative, its hard deck is missing, or required scenery files have not loaded. If the aircraft touches down but never catches a wire, deploy the tailhook and confirm that both the aircraft and carrier support FSX Acceleration arresting gear.
Yes, FSX can provide carrier-simulator-style practice, but a naval paint scheme and a visible ship are not enough. The Acceleration F/A-18 and Carrier Tutorial are the safest stock combination; for Free Flight, use our carrier take-off and arrested-landing checklist.
Does this apply in MSFS24?
No. If “MSFS24” means Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, these FSX mission names, Acceleration systems and AI carrier utilities do not apply.
FSX carrier packages cannot simply be copied into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024; that simulator requires native content and its own placement or activity method. See our separate explanation of carrier availability in Microsoft Flight Simulator rather than following the FSX procedure.