Citation X – The Rolls Royce of the Sky
If you want to fly the fastest civilian plane in the world, you can do it with Flight Sim Pro. Indeed, you can fly two of three fastest civilian planes in the world – the Concorde and the Citation X.
When it was flying, the supersonic Concorde was the fastest civilian plane, with an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (about 1,330 mph) with a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet, which was more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft. The Concorde flew passengers from 1969 to 2003, but it was never able to make a profit.
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Its Russian rival was the Tupolev Tu-144, a poorly designed supersonic aircraft which flew a few passengers between 1973 to 1975, before being retired in the interests of safety. It’s not represented in Flight Pro Sim, which is a good thing!
Third after the Concorde and the Tu-144, and the fastest civilian plane currently flying, is the Citation X, which can fly at a top speed of Mach .92. (Not that it is flown at that speed except to set a speed record. For fuel consumption and to ensure longevity of the airframe, the Citation X has an average cruise speed of Mach .90.)
That’s why it’s fun to fly the Citation X in a simmie such as Flight Sim Pro. One can do all the things one wants to do in real life – test the very limits of the aircraft – and walk away at the end of the flight.
The Citation X is a long range business jet powered by two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines, and has a glass cockpit – all the instruments are electronic rather than electromechanical. It first started flying passengers in 1996, and golfer Arnold Palmer took possession of the first aircraft delivered to a customer. This craft has a crew of two and can fly from 8 to 12 passengers.
All of the aircraft in FlightProSim, including the Citation X, are represented by accurate instrument panels, accurate cockpits, and accurate exterior craft design. The scenery one flies over is accurate, as are the airports one flies into and out of.
In order to have the best flight simulator experience, the user should have a few accessories. The Citation X is flown with a yoke (as opposed to a joystick or a sidestick), and yokes can be purchased for about $100. Flight Pro Sim supports yokes, joysticks, throttles and rudder pedals (all of which cost in the $100 range) and significantly increase the enjoyment of the flight simulation experience. However, budget users are not left out in the cold, all aircraft can also be flown via the keyboard.
In order to get the full experience, computers with enough processor speed and random access memory (RAM) must be used. The quality of the video card must also be taken into consideration.
As with any other type of application, Flight Pro Sim lists the requirements needed: a processor with a speed of at least, 2+ Ghz, a computer running Win 98/2000/ME/XP , 256 Mb RAM and a Video card with OpenGL Driver. These are the bare minimum requirements, at least double the RAM and double the Ghz will provide a much better experience.
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