There really is a player in the civilian flight sim market: X-Plane. Version 10 is expected around Christmas. It's better than MSF ever was even in version 9 (doesn't have the greatest stock graphics though).
A lot of 3rd party plane makers do "for pay" aircraft for X-Plane. The flight model for the sim, however, is VERY complex.
Add ons work for civilian sims because of the higher level of immersion. Yes, complex start up procedures, weather effects, engine and fuel management, navigation, etc.. In these sims, you are totally engrossed in just flying the plane from A to B. The detail and complexity in each aircraft is amazing and players devote hundreds of hours perfecting their pilot skills in a individual model. So, third party "pay ware" is viable, even demanded.
As we have seen, most combat simmers are not interested in all of the aspects of a civilian flight sim. It's too complex in its' own way. Combat simmers want to be shooting down other planes which is a totally different set of complexities and skills.
So I am not sure a crossover is completely viable. No way is a combat sim today going to mimic all of the complexities of a flight sim. No way can a flight sim add in good combat from a resources point of view.
Civilian flight sims max out your computer without any shooting. Combat flight sims max out your computer without truly complex flight models and "management" (like approved by the FAA for training purposes where you can log flight time). I'm not sure what hardware it would take to combine the two but I do know that I can't afford it lol.
As good as I expect SoW to be as far as a flight sim goes, it won't replace a sim like X-Plane. Conversely, X-Plane won't have any combat which we know Oleg will do very well. Apples and oranges. Two different business models. I'll be buying both
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Splitter