Free Flight Simulator with Google Earth

Posted on June 10, 2008
Filed Under Aviation Interest, Simulation, Training Devices | Leave a Comment

The Ultimate Flight Simulation Game: X-Plane 9 for Mac

Posted on June 9, 2008
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If you are a PC X-Plane user and are considering making the switch to Apple, there is good news. X-Plane for Macintosh should provide an excellent simulator experience, and even includes some VLJ aircraft like the Cirrus.

-Andy

X-Plane 9 (ESRB: E) is a flight simulator for Macintosh computers developed by Laminar Research. It is packaged with extra software tools to build and customize aircraft and scenery, offering a complete flight simulation environment for the world of props, jets, single- and multi-engine airplanes, as well as gliders, helicopters and new Very Light Jets such as the Cirrus Jet.

X-Plane 9 is also used in non-motion and full-motion flight simulators for flight training. Some of these implementations have been certified by the FAA for authorized flight instruction such as Flight Level Aviation and Simtrain.

The game includes over 40 aircraft spanning the aviation industry (and history), and several hundred more are freely downloadable from the internet. It comes with subsonic and supersonic flight dynamics, simulating aircraft from the Bell 206 Jet-Ranger helicopter and Cessna 172 light plane to the supersonic Concorde and Mach-3 XB-70 Valkyrie.

X-Plane 9 includes Plane-Maker and Airfoil-Maker, which enables players to create their own airplanes and airfoils for their aircraft. It also comes with World-Maker, which lets the players create scenery, and Weather Briefer that makes a weather briefing based on actual weather conditions and allowing users to make airfoils for their aircraft if they would like to make your own planes. Also included is detailed failure modeling, with 35 systems that can fail manually or randomly.

Through the plugin interface, players can create external modules that extend the functionality of the software and players can land at any of over 18,000 airports in the World. This has created an active community of users who use the simulator for a variety of purposes, as the flight model can help predict performance of real-world aircraft. Unlike Flight Sim X players get free updates until the next full version. The updates regularly address bug fixes and new content based on users feedback.

Laminar Research is a small software company based out of Columbia, South Carolina and owned by long-time pilot and flight enthusiast Austin Meyer. The company performs software development largely performed on Mac computers.

So how does this flight simulator work? According to Austin Meyer:

“X-Plane reads in the geometric shape of any aircraft and then figures out how that aircraft will fly. It does this by an engineering process called “blade element theory”, which involves breaking the aircraft down into many small elements and then finding the forces on each little element many times per second. These forces are then converted into accelerations which are then integrated to velocities and positions… of course, all of this technical theory is completely transparent to you… you just fly! It’s fun!”

A word of caution: X-Plane 9 does have a steep learning curve and can be intimidating and this game is not a first-time-user friendly. It takes a fair amount of time to completely master it, but it definitely makes up for it in the long run.

You can order this game from X-Plane’s official web site for $59.00 (soon to be increased to $79.00 according to the developer).

–Product review courtesy Palluxo

Air New Zealand Schedules Biofuel Test Flight

Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under Aerospace Industry, Aviation Interest | Leave a Comment

The Los Angeles Times (6/5, Pae) reports that Air New Zealand is planning a “three-hour test flight” this summer, during which one of its 747 aircraft will be “powered by fuel refined from” a type of oil gleaned from the “poisonous seeds of the jatropha tree.” Predictions are the fuel refined from jatropha oil “could cost an estimated $43 a barrel, or about one-third of Wednesday’s closing price of $122.30 for a barrel of crude oil.” The Times characterizes Air New Zealand’s test flight as “particularly noteworthy” as “it will come at a time when ethanol and other biofuels have come under increasing scrutiny because of their side effects.” According to scientists, “the quality of jatropha oil [is] better than most for making jet fuel.” Further, “[j]atropha-based fuel…produces about half the harmful carbon emissions of fossil fuel.”

The announcement of the test flight follows recently-released plans from the carrier “to meet at least 10 percent of its annual fuel bill with crop-based alternatives by 2013,” Bloomberg (6/5, Evans) points out. Air New Zealand is also “buying fuel-efficient jetliners to cut emissions and fuel costs, and earlier this year offered customers carbon credits to offset pollution from their travel.”

Reuters (6/5, Bathgate) notes that, according to the carrier, “its program of emissions savings had resulted in a reduction of 91,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the past three years.” Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald (6/5), the New Zealand Herald (6/5, Dye), and Aviation News (6/4) also report the story.