Oleg Maddox, the lead designer and the driving force behind the Il-2 series of flight sims, has always been fascinated with aviation. He always dreamt of being an aircraft designer, and at the age of 16 he entered Moscow Aviation Institute – the most prestigious Soviet school for aviation engineers. By the time he graduated with top honors in his class, his passion for WWII aviation grew even stronger.



While still in institute he was hired by one of USSR’s top aerospace technology research design bureaus. He was promoted time and again over everybody else in his department until he became one of the youngest department managers in the bureau’s history. However in the late 80s Oleg found himself no longer needed. The Soviet economy, air force and the state itself lay in ruins. Thousands of talented engineers like Oleg were let go; Oleg decided to leave his job himself.



Oleg quickly adapted to the new economy and ran several successful technology businesses, including one of the first GPS programming businesses in the world. WWII aviation still remained his number one passion, and he used his business travels inside and outside of Russia to expand his reference collection and to visit many aviation museums where he could finally see the famous planes he knew so well.



Finally, in the late 1992 Oleg founded Maddox Games, a software development company. Maddox Games gained real fame in 1996 with the release of a futuristic techno shooter called MadSpace. It was a hit in Russia, and in 1997 Maddox followed up with a real sensation called Z.A.R. It was one of the most popular games ever released in Russia; a first person shooter most Russian gamers preferred to Doom, Quake and all other FPS titles available at the time. It had exceptionally smooth online gameplay unmatched by any other title on the market. Oleg Maddox and Maddox Games became household names among Russian gamers. In 1999 Maddox Games became affiliated with 1C Company, a well-known Russian publisher and distributor and a new company 1C:Maddox Games was formed that became an in-house development studio of 1C.

Instead of capitalizing on his huge success with these titles and releasing more first-person shooters Oleg had other ideas. He saw computer technology advance very rapidly during that time, and finally reaching the point where real-time simulation of complex aerodynamics became possible. Many in his team wanted to make more shooters, but Oleg insisted. They were going to build a flight sim. The rest is history.



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