X-Plane Extreme

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Note: Information provided below is for legacy support only. Only X-Plane 10 Mobile is currently available in the App Store.

Aircraft that push the limits of their pilots

X-Plane Extreme is one of the spinoffs of the X-Plane 9 application. It features some of the most unusual, fastest, highest flying, and most maneuverable aircraft ever built, which can be flown through its six gorgeous map regions.

Included Aircraft

The X-Plane Extreme app includes the following aircraft:

  • F-22 Raptor
  • SR-71 Blackbird
  • B-1 “The Bone”
  • B-2 Spirit
  • B-52 Stratofortress
  • North American X-15
  • XB-70 Valkyrie
  • C-130 Hercules

The F-22 Raptor is by far the most maneuverable and powerful fighter in the sky. Nothing else comes remotely close. An interesting point regarding the Raptor is that the thrust vectors up and down to steer the craft. This lets the plane pitch the nose up and down with full authority even at zero speed, simply by vectoring the thrust-it can even hang (nearly) motionless on its engines. This comes at a cost, though: When the pilot cuts the power, the craft loses that lift and maneuverability.

The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest jet aircraft in the world, able to exceed Mach 3 and break 70,000 feet. It still holds several world speed records set in the 1970s and 1980s. Many users wonder why it is, then, that the F-22 has a higher acceleration and top speed than the SR-71 at low altitudes. Simply put, each plane is designed for a different mission and operational envelope. The SR-71 was designed as a spy plane and is absolutely untouchable (even 40 years later) in high-altitude, straight and level flight. In 1977 a Russian MiG-25 (Russia’s premier interceptor and attack aircraft) made an attempt to intercept an SR-71 at nearly 70,000 feet. The Russian aircraft completely trashed its engines trying to keep up, though it could momentarily hit Mach 3. The Blackbird simply pulled away. The SR-71 at 50,000 feet or higher will leave any other aircraft in the dust, even the mighty F-22.

The B-1 “The Bone” bomber has almost full-span flaps (that is, the flaps cover nearly the full wingspan), leaving very little room for ailerons. Thus, spoilers must be used for roll control, as well as differentially deflecting all-moving stabilators (the horizontal tail surfaces) to aid in roll control. Despite the huge flaps and multiple roll controls, this huge, ungainly bird still has terribly high stall speeds and a limited roll rate due to its high weight. If pilots can get this plane around the sky and down in one piece, they are doing well!

The next aircraft in X-Plane Extreme is the B-2 Spirit, otherwise known as the “Stealth Bomber.” The B-2, quite uniquely, has no tail. At all. There is no vertical stabilizer, no horizontal stabilizer, and no flaps. Instead, ailerons on the wingtips split open to add drag on the left or right side of the plane to give yaw control.

A fly-by-wire system coupled to multiple flight control surfaces makes this aircraft manageable, and really rather nice to fly. Actually, this aircraft is literally unflyable without the flight control computers, which continually make small inputs to keep the plane flying the way (and direction) the pilot commands.

The B-52 Stratofortress (informally known as the BUFF-the Big, Ugly, Fat —-) is a huge eight-engined bomber, originally designed during the Cold War to carry nuclear weapons.

This monster of a plane needs about 230 knots (with one third flaps) to get off the ground, and it has a maximum speed of about 650 miles per hour at 20,000 feet.

The North American X-15 is a rocket-powered speed demon. With a top speed of Mach 6.72 (4520 miles per hour), it is the fastest manned aircraft in the world. To begin flight, this craft is dropped, uniquely, from the B-52 “mothership.” Its top speed is over double that of the SR-71 (the world’s fastest airplane), and its maximum altitude of over 50 miles qualifies its pilots for astronaut status.

The craft’s absurdly high top speed requires a blast shield to be installed over one side of the windshield-without it, the windows would burn up. Thus, the X-15 pilots would fly the high speed portion of the mission with the shield on the right side, looking out the left side only. After the craft slowed down (and the left window was sufficiently charred), the pilot would jettison the blast shield and move to the right window in order to land.

The XB-70 was a prototype bomber designed during the 1950s, able to exceed Mach 3 at 70,000 feet. Like the SR-71, it diffuses the vast amounts of heat produced by friction when flying at Mach 3 by circulating fuel through its outer skin.

Its high-speed, high-altitude design worked well for avoiding the threat posed by interceptor aircraft. With the advent of Soviet anti-aircraft missiles in the late 1950s, though, this strategy fell out of favor, replaced by low-altitude aircraft that could only be detected (and fired at!) at much shorter distances.

The C-130 is a versatile military transport plane, used across the world as a gunship, airlifter, search-and-rescue craft, and even firefighter. Its six turboprop engines give it a top speed of 320 knots. It holds the record for the longest continuous production run among military aircraft, and the record for the heaviest aircraft to be landed on an aircraft carrier.

Included Flight Regions

X-Plane Extreme has six flight regions available:

  • Canyons (a fictional area filled with its namesake),
  • the Southern California desert (Palm Springs area),
  • Kathmandu, Nepal,
  • Juneau, Alaska,
  • Van Nuys, California, and
  • Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Get it from the iTunes Store

Purchase X-Plane Extreme for the iPhone and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.

Get it from the webOS store

Purchase X-Plane Extreme for the Palm Pre using this link.

X-Plane Extreme, found in the main X-Plane Mobile manual

The main X-Plane Mobile manual (which includes X-Plane Extreme) can be downloaded using this link. Alternatively, you can read the manual on our Wiki, here.

Screenshots

Click the images below to see them at full size, then click to close them.

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