Flight Simulator Aircraft From Every Era
Most of the fun with flight simulators comes from the fact that the armchair pilot can fly practically any plane he or she desires. Flight simulator aircraft are unlimited – any aircraft at all can be uploaded to the simulator as long as designers know how to program it.
Flight simulator aircraft runs the gamut from the very beginning aircraft – from ornithopters to the Wright Flyer to the Santos-Dumont 14bis.
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What’s the 14bis? Also called the Oiseau de proie (“bird of prey”), it was a canard biplane (biplane tail but separate elevators) designed and built by Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. Santos-Dumont flew it in late 1906 – the first officially witnessed unaided takeoff and flight by a heavier-than-air aircraft in Europe. However, the craft was never as air-worthy as the Wright Flyer.
FlightProSim offers these pioneer aircraft, with appropriate cockpit instrument panels – i.e., none at all! Armchair pilots are truly flying by the seat of their pants.
Flight simulator aircraft must match their real world counterparts as closely as possible. This includes not only an accurate instrument panel (or lack of one) but also lag time, gyro drift, and affects on the magnetic compass. In FlightProSim, pilots can also customize their flights, if they so desire, by programming in instrument or system failures, which they will then have to overcome.
As well as pioneer aircraft, other types that the armchair pilot can fly are World War I craft such as the Sopwith Camel or Fokker Dr 1 Triplane. Although WWI is credited with accelerating the pace of aircraft inventions, that’s not necessarily true. Aviation had advanced quite a bit from 1908 when Wilbur Wright showed off the Wright Flyer III in Paris, making controlled turns that the Europeans up until that point had been unable to do. By 1909, airshows were already being held, and had the war not interrupted, aviation designs would have continued at a rapid pace as country’s would have continued to vie for pride of place in producing the best aircraft.
World War II aircraft are also well-represented in flight simulator aircraft. Britain’s most famous aircraft, the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire are there, America’s Vought Corsair and P-51 Mustang, Germany’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger , and Japan’s Zero. The first jet aircraft from Germany, the Messerschmitt Me 262, and from the United States – the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star.
Russia is represented with the swept-wing MiG 15, which came into wide use during the Korean War, as Russia equipped the North Koreans anf Chinese with them. Indeed, the first jet-to-jet aerial dogfight took place between a MiG 15 and an F-80 Shooting Star. The Shooting Star won this first battle.
In addition to other military aircraft from the Vietnam War and beyond, flight simulator aircraft also supply experience in flying dirigibles, hang gliders, gliders, kitplanes (such as Burt Rutan’s Long EZ and Quickie) and even a UFO.
FlightProSim offers over a hundred aircraft for its members. Other aircraft come on line at regular intervals. Since FlightProSim is open source, designers can upload aircraft and scenarios at any time, for the benefit of their users.
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