Under the auspices of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, they have created a high-resolution database of Earth’s topography. SRTM, or Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, is a joint task force of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and NASA. SceneryįlightGear uses the most accurate terrain graphics modeling in the world. FlightGear’s emphasis on realism is reflected in little details like sloping runways, airfield lights that change intensity as the view alters, and accurate runaway markings. Bigger airports have taxiways complete with center lighting. Each has accurate markings and lighting configurations. Users can travel to over 20,000 airports worldwide. The commercial products Flight Pro Sim, Pro Flight Simulator, and others, are direct copies of FlightGear.įlightGear may be free, but it doesn’t skimp on features and rivals commercial packages with excellent airports, aircraft, and scenery.

FlightGear code is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, thus being free software. It has specific builds for a variety of operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX, and Solaris. The project had its first release in 1997 and continued in development, the most recent release being version 2.4.0 in August 2011. Information from the FlightGear Wiki Page:įlightGear Flight Simulator (often shortened to FlightGear or FGFS) is a free, open-source multi-platform flight simulator developed by the FlightGear project since 1997.ĭavid Murr started the project on April 8, 1996. For example, some users report that the FlightGear Cessna 172 tends to pull to the left, a common characteristic of single-engine planes in real life. The latter two were created solely for FlightGear.įlightGear’s FDM’s are known for their realistic flying experience. FlightGear’s excellent flight dynamics models (FDM) are based on JSBSim, the main FDM since 2000, UIUC, or YAsim. None of that would matter much if the flight experience didn’t shine. Frustrated by the lack of customization and extensibility available in commercial projects, FlightGear’s founders wanted to create a simulator where educators, researchers, pilots, and flight simulation enthusiasts could build their own aircraft.įlightGear is bound by the open-source GPL license which allows anyone to contribute code, join development teams, and add aircraft and scenery. It can run on Windows (7, 8, and 10), macOS, Linux, Solaris, and IRIX platforms. Users can download it anytime and copy it to as many machines as they like. FlightGear Flight Simulator is an open-source project.

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