X-Plane can model fairly complex aircraft designs, including helicopters, rockets, rotorcraft, and tilt-rotor craft.Įxtensibility An Airbus A340 at Heathrow Airport, an example of one of the many 3rd party aircraft/scenery packages available for X-Plane This approach allows users to design aircraft quickly and easily, as the simulator engine immediately illustrates how an aircraft with a given design might perform in the real world. When this process is applied to each component, the simulated aircraft will fly similarly to its real-life counterpart. After that, the lift and drag of each section are calculated, and the resulting effect is applied to the whole aircraft. wing) may be made up of many sections (1 to 4 is typical), and each section is further divided into as many as 10 separate subsections. With blade element theory, a surface (e.g. Blade-element theory and other computational aerodynamic models are often used to compute aerodynamic forces in real-time or pre-compute aerodynamic forces of a new design for use in a simulator employing lookup tables. These simulators sufficiently simulate the flight characteristics of the aircraft, specifically those with known aerodynamic data, but are not useful in design work, and do not predict the performance of aircraft when the actual figures are not available.īlade element theory improves on this type of simulation, by modeling the forces and moments on an aircraft and individually evaluating the parts that constitute it. Traditionally, flight simulators emulate the real-world performance of an aircraft by using empirical data in predefined lookup tables to determine aerodynamic forces such as lift or drag, which vary with differing flight conditions. X-Plane differentiates itself from other simulators by implementing an aerodynamic model called blade element theory. Although initially available for free, only five initial locations are available without the purchase of a monthly subscription.įlight model Screenshot of X-Plane 12.00: Van's RV-10 at Appleton International Airport out of the box On December 9, 2019, X-Plane Mobile Global, a major update for the mobile port, was released. In the same announcement, they also shared that the version numbering would change from a one-point system to a two-point system starting from version 12.0.8 to allow for more versions to be released faster. In October 2023, Laminar Research announced the price for X-Plane 12 would be raised from 59.99 USD to 79.99 USD on the 31st. New aircraft such as the Airbus A330, Cessna Citation X, F-14, PA-18 SuperCub, and the Cirrus SR22 were added to the default fleet of X-Plane. It also features an updated flight model, an entirely new ATC system, and new Primus avionics. It brings a new photometric lighting engine, volumetric clouds, 3-D water, windscreen rain effects, and moving jetways. X-Plane 12 was officially launched on December 17, 2022. On September 5, 2022, Laminar Research launched their latest version, X-Plane 12, as early access. Laminar Research also maintains a Scenery Gateway, which allows users to submit and refine airports for inclusion in the default global scenery. There are numerous forums where users share their creations for X-Plane, some freeware and some payware. X-Plane's architecture allows users to create their own add-ons such as aircraft, scenery, or plugins to extend functionality. X-Plane is pre-packaged with various aircraft and global scenery, which covers most of the Earth. A mobile version has been available for Android, iOS, and webOS since 2009 as well. In addition, Laminar Research also distributes FAA-certified versions for professional use. Commercial desktop versions are sold for macOS, Windows, and Linux. X-Plane is a flight simulation software initially launched by Laminar Research in 1995.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |