Description
X-Plane for Mac, Windows, and Linux (www.X-Plane.com) is the most flexible and realistic flight simulator on the market for desktop personal computers. Using blade element theory for the most powerful and accurate flight model available for personal computers, and earning FAA certification for logging of flight time for pilots, X-Plane is the Gold Standard for accurate flight simulation, offering realism that is unmatched by any other simulator.
And now, thanks to the power of the iPhone and iPodTouch, X-Plane is available for these stunning little platforms. As in the full desktop version, X-Plane for iPhone lets you experiment with different times of day, weather, sky conditions, wind, turbulence and airplanes, all while flying the craft from various different views, starting in the stunning terrain topography of Innsbruck, Austria, home to some of the most challenging mountains and topography for aviation.
With physics FAR more realistic than you will find in any other 'flying game', this flight SIMULATION lets you enjoy a good handful of mazing airplanes and flying regions. Fly the amazing new Cirrus Jet concept, a single-engine jet that lets any pilot scoot across the sky at Mach 0.5 in his own personal jet transport, the amazingly sleek and sexy Italian Piaggo Avanti, the amazingly sleek and efficient Columbia-400 (owned and flown by the author of this program) or just the good old Cessna-172.
You are given some amazing areas to fly, from the stunning mountains of Innsbruck, Austria, to the airport-rich are of Southern California. Or try your luck over water between isalnds around Hawaii.
Fly in perfect clear weather, or bring in some turbulence to crank up the challenge-level. Then make it night. Then add some low clouds. Then lower the visibility. Then switch to the instrument panel view and try landing by reference to the instruments... realistic flight instruments are included to let you do everything right up to a FULL ILS TO MINIMUMS! The power of this app far surpasses most anything else out there... can you handle it?
We here at Laminar Research are still a bit shell-shocked at how powerful this little device is, and how much power in flight simulation can be stuffed into it... the power of X-Plane can now be had with you... anywhere.
What's New in Version 9.50
As requested:
External views are closer in to the aircraft again, as requested. Circling view stays aircaft-path relative at normal flight speeds now. This allows the circling view to always stay BEHIND the plane, if desired.
ILS's should all be present and functional.
Cool new stuff I thought to add for you:
A cool new indicator to help you spot other planes... a simple rectangle surrounding them on the HUD, so you can always spot them!
This is useful for multiplay sessions, Extreme, Racing, and especially CARRIER, where you gotta shoot the other guys down!
This system is modeled after the system seen in modern fighter jets.
Flight model improvements that you will really notice in the warbirds... we now have spiraling propwash!
This really kicks the tail around in just the same way we see in the REAL birds when power is added for take-off.
As well, better flight-control auto-assist with rudder... which is really needed for those warbirds!
This helps with the Cessna 172 a bit as well... it makes it a bit more realistic.
If you crash, you catch on fire.
And burn.
Continuing refinements:
Yet a hair more frame-rate optimization as we squeeze out every last bit of performance.
Sound stays fully functional in all views.
User interface for the main flight screen tweaked ever so slightly for perfect consistency.
Flap position indicator behind the selector so you can see where the flaps are at any given moment as they deploy.
"Center" button on map to center on your plane.
Refinements in sky color for more realism and variety.
Dozens of other small refinements based on large amounts of feedback from testers.
Customer Reviews
Great fun for flight sim enthusiasts and pilots
Good terrain graphics and animated aircraft models, very good frame rates, smooth, realistic looking (but generic) head's up display. Retractable landing gear, flaps, brake. Jet and prop sounds. Options to control time of day, weather and more. Multiple external views that can be controlled using standard Touch/iPhone gestures.
I really enjoyed flying it, once I got the hang of controlling the power settings and aircraft pitch and bank by tilting the iPOD. I took the Cirrus jet up to 15K feet, and 300 knots, and down on the deck at 200 knots, and it worked fine.
Suggested enhancements: sensitivity adjustments for the accelerometer, a basic "six pack" instrument panel option. Also - for the scenery - a few buildings and a few other airports to fly to.
If you're a flight sim or real world pilot, you'll want to get this, and you'll probably be fooling around with it for hours...
Beautiful, realistic graphics but needs more detail and gets VERY boring very fast.
Great achievement to bring this simulator to iPhone; beautiful graphics but sparse scenery. Nothing to see but polygon mountains; nothing of interest to fly to; where do you land; why are you flying; where are you going? No monuments, rivers, towns, bridges, etc. NO MAPS OR NAVIGATION(!!), no radar; there should at least be a "fake" radio or radar signal you can tap into to triangulate and try to fly and LAND somewhere fun. I don't know how people can say this is so fun. It is VERY fun for two minutes but then VERY boring after that -- it's something to show off to people for 1 minute but I'd rather go play Crash Bandicoot, GT Racing, Texas Hold 'Em, Tap-Tap, Tetris, BlackJack 21, or Labyrinth. I can't believe I paid $10 for this. Again, it is BEAUTIFUL at first but then you realize that it's just polygon rendering with no OBJECTS (like a town to look at). Game would be worth $10 if there was more features.
Wow, just wow.
Not sure why someone wrote a review entitled "Looks amazing" and then gave it 1 star?
Anyway, this app is an incredible achievement... graphics are stunning. My only suggestions would be to give the option of swapping the HUD for a basic cluster of a few analog instruments (for traditionalists who don't want to see a HUD when flying a Cessna 172), and to provide a calibration/adjustment mechanism the controls (a "neutral" adjustment slider like Chopper has for pitch, and sensitivity for both pitch and roll).
Great job, Austin!
- Category: Games
- Updated Dec 02, 2009
- Current Version: 9.50
- 9.50 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
- 35.5 MB
- Languages: English
- Seller: Laminar Research
- © 2009, Laminar Research
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.0 or later.
