Games & Entertainment

Flightgear Aircraft

Aviation Flightgear Flight Simulator, 300 Extra Aircraft FREE, Flight Sim DVD $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR Aircraft Flight SIMULATOR 2.4, 300 PLANES, W/ Fighter Planes! $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR W/Private Jets, 300 PLANES, VERSION 2.4 $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR, W/ BONUS PLANES, FLIGHT SIM DVD NEW! $10.95

AIRCRAFT Flightgear Flight SIMULATOR, LARGE PLANES, 300 BONUS PLANES, 2012 VER $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2.4, W/ 300 BONUS PLANES! LEARN TO FLY $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR W/ FIGHTER PLANES, DVD FLIGHT SIM, 2012 $10.95

AVIATION FLIGHTGEAR 2.4, 2012 RELEASE, FLIGHT SIMULATOR, EXTRA AIRCRAFT $10.95

AIRCRAFT FLIGHTGEAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR, LARGE PLANES, DVD FLIGHT SIM $10.95

AIRCRAFT FLIGHTGEAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR, LARGE PLANES, 2012 RELEASE LEARN TO FLY $10.95

AVIATION FLIGHTGEAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR, 300 EXTRA AIRCRAFT FOR FREE, NEW FOR 2012 $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2.4, 2012, W/PRIVATE JETS, 300 AIRCRAFT $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR W/ FIGHTER PLANES, NEW FOR 2012, 300 PLANES $10.95

FLIGHTGEAR AIRCRAFT REALISTIC FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2.4, 2012 W/ 300 BONUS PLANES! $10.95

Flightgear – Free Flight Simulator

The amount of time the online community are willing to spend helping others and developing content never ceases to amaze and astonish me. With the thousands of forums online with increasingly specific themes it seems information is available on almost anything. For example my long term girlfriend opening a salon and the advice given by holistic therapists has been absolutely priceless. I admire the fact that they spend their evenings freely offering advice to others in the trade without anything to gain but the knowledge they have helped someone out.

Open Source software is another interesting topic. If you’re not aware of the term, ‘open source’ refers to a piece of software which can not only be downloaded free of charge but the source code is also available meaning that anyone with the right knowledge can alter or add to the code. Google has produced a fair amount of Open Source software but there is always the clear vested interest of publicity however I don’t think it would be fair to attribute the same motives to a game that I’m going to feature today.

Flightgear (www.flightgear.org) is an Open Source Flight Simulator which was first released back in July of 1997. It is the combination of work from hundreds of talented programmers from around the world who don’t get paid, nor do they receive any real credit for the work they do but still choose to participate. The result is a very capable flight simulator that anyone can download and enjoy completely free of charge.

The attention to detail is impressive:

Scenery – The worldwide terrain is geographically accurate and includes lakes, rivers, roads, cities and towns. Plus over 20,000 real world airports have been included, complete with accurate markings, lighting and taxiways.

Sky accuracy – By checking your computers clock and geographic location the game can change the skyline accordingly. At the time of writing it is 15:00 in New York City so if I were to choose to land in John F Kennedy airport then the weather and lighting conditions would reflect a winter afternoon in that part of the world. The game even goes as far as placing the sun, moon and stars in their correct placed based on the date and geographic location.

Aircraft – As well as including a number of commercial, light aircraft and Military Jets there is also the opportunity to model Your Own. Of course, the Wright brothers ‘flying machine’ is also included for good measure.

Although the graphics aren’t quite what you would expect from a typical retail game Microsoft Flight Simulator, they are more than enough to convey an impressive sense of realism. I think it is important to remember that the fun in a game like this comes primarily from the feel of controlling and manoeuvring the aircraft rather the just taking in the scenery.

The relatively non-intensive graphics also give the game the advantage of being able to run on most modern entry level systems and rather than being a Windows only application support has also been provided for Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX and Solaris. Worryingly I’ve been booked in for a real life flying lesson at Exeter airport this summer so think I might have to get some practice in….

About the Author

Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copyrighter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges who sell cheap
ink cartridges
, toner cartridges, computer hardware and other computer consumables online. An archive of his work can be found at
www.computerarticles.co.uk
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im playing Flightgear (flight simulator) and i want to know if theres a way to edit and make your own aircraft?

i mean like is there a special app for Macs that u need? i just want to change the color of thee planes and stuff. some of the extensions are

I’ve noticed peedlepup only wonders to the aircraft section just to yell at a FSX question…/