Meet X-Plane.
What is it?
X-Plane is the world's most comprehensive and powerful flight simulator for personal computers. It offers the most realistic flight model available for home use.
Welcome to the world of props, jets, single- and multi-engine airplanes, as well as gliders, helicopters and VTOLs such as the V-22 Osprey and AV-8B Harrier.
X-Plane contains subsonic and supersonic flight dynamics, allowing users to predict the flight characteristics of the slowest aircraft to the fastest. X-Plane includes thirty-five aircraft on its master disk, spanning the aviation industry (and its history), sporting aircraft from the Bell 206 JetRanger and Cessna 172 to the supersonic SR-71 and the Space Shuttle. Additionally, more than 1,400 additional aircraft models (such as those at X-Plane.org) can be downloaded from the Internet , nearly all of which are free. If those aren't enough, users can design their own airplanes and test fly them!
X-Plane's flight model can even handle flying wings and fly-by-wire systems, as needed for a B-2 simulation.
The X-Plane scenery package covers the Earth in stunning resolution from 74 degrees north to 60 degrees south latitude. Scenery is also available for Mars thanks to the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter, which mapped that planet's elevation. On Earth, users can land at any of over 33,000 airports or test their mettle on aircraft carriers, oil rigs, frigates (which pitch and roll with the waves), or helipads atop buildings. They can also realistically model the flight of remote controlled model aircraft, air-launch in an X-15 or Space Ship One from the mother ship, fly re-entries into Earth's atmosphere in the Space Shuttle, fly with friends over the Internet or a LAN, drop water on forest fires, or shoot approaches to aircraft carriers at night in stormy weather and rough water conditions in a damaged F-4. The situations that can be simulated are incredible!
Weather is variable in X-Plane from clear skies and high visibility to thunderstorms with controllable wind, wind shear, turbulence, and micro bursts. Rain, snow, and clouds are available for an instrument flying challenge, and thermals are available for the gliders. Actual weather conditions can be downloaded from the Internet, allowing users to fly in the weather that currently exists at the location of the flight!
X-Plane also has detailed failure modeling, with multitudes of systems that can either be failed manually at an instructor's command, or randomly when users least expect it! Users can fail instruments, engines, flight controls, control cables, antennae, landing gear, or any of dozens of other systems at any moment.
While on its own X-Plane represents the world's most comprehensive flight simulator, the installation DVD also comes with Plane-Maker (allowing users to create custom aircraft or modify existing designs), Airfoil-Maker (allowing users to create airfoil performance profiles), and Weather-Briefer (to give users a weather briefing before the flight when using real weather conditions downloaded from the Internet).
X-Plane is extremely customizable, allowing users to easily create textures, sounds, and instrument panels for their own airplane designs or for the planes included with the sim.
X-Plane's accuracy (in flight model), scope (in aircraft and terrain coverage), versatility (in aircraft type and weather conditions), add-on programs (in aircraft and scenery editors), customizability, downloadable aircraft, and downloadable scenery make it the ultimate flight simulation experience for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux platforms.
The following aircraft are included on the X-Plane installation discs:
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Cirrus Vision SF50 Cessna 172SP Beechcraft King Air B200 Piaggo P-180 Avanti Piper PA-46-310P Malibu Van's RV-3/4/6/7/8/9/10 Stinson L-5 Sentinel F-4 Phantom II F-22 Raptor Viggen JA37 ASK-21 glider Boeing B-52G Stratofortress Boeing B747-400 Boeing B777-200 KC-10 Extender |
Bell 47 Bell 206 JetRanger Robinson R22 Beta Sikorsky S-61 Northrop B-2 Spirit Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Rockwell B-1B Lancer Bombardier Canadair CL-415 AV-8B Harrier II Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey X-15 and X-30 X-Planes Space Shuttle Orbiter Mars Jet, Mars Rocket Great Planes PT-60 RC plane Thunder Tiger Raptor 30 v2 RC helicopter |
Included on the X-Plane DVD:
- Airfoil-Maker (to make airfoils for your aircraft if you would like to make your own planes)
- Plane-Maker (to make your own planes and helos if desired)
- Weather-Briefer (to get a weather-briefing before your flight if desired)
- X-Plane (the actual flight simulator)
How X-Plane works
The flow-field visualization for X-Plane 9.30 and later. Pitch rate, downwash, and wake effects are all clearly visible... if you know what to look for!
Click here to take a look inside X-Plane.
Special situations in X-Plane
X-Plane allows users to load special situations, such as carrier takeoffs and landings, X-15 launches from a B-52, helipad takeoffs, seaplane takeoffs, glider tows, formation flights, and forest fire water bombings. Users can even fly on Mars or fly the Space Shuttle.
What's in version 9?
Version 9 improves upon version 8 with numberous performance enhancements (including a new feature to utilize multiple CPU cores to virtually eliminate the pause when loading new scenery), new aircraft (including the in-house models created by Cirrus and Van's Aircraft for the Cirrus Jet and Van's RVs, respecively), improved high-definition global scenery, and flight model refinements, among other things. To read about each specific improvement, see the X-Plane Wiki.
What's new in the latest update?
To read all about the latest update, see the Change Log page. To read about the latest beta, see the Beta page.
Quick links
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System requirements
- A 2 GHz CPU
- 1 GB RAM
- DirectX 9 video card or newer
See X-Plane in action!
Prepare to be stunned by X-Plane. Videos and photos speak where words can't. See the Multimedia page...
What do other people think?
Get more opinions before you buy. Read reviews and connect with current users. We're confident they feel as strongly about X-Plane as we do. Learn more...
Switching from Microsoft Flight Simulator
Tens of thousands of users have done it already. Switch to X-Plane and find out how accurate a computer flight model can be. Don't worry... You can bring over your old MSFS scenery, and you'll find that creating aircraft in X-Plane is much easier than in "the other sim." Learn more...
What sets X-Plane apart?
It's blade element theory, of course. By breaking down every surface of the airplane and calculating the forces acting on each piece individually, X-Plane delivers the most realistic flight experience available. Learn more...
Try the demo, or get the update
The demo is free, and it's a relatively small download. The updates, too, are free, and their bug fixes and new features make them worth the time it takes to get them. See the Downloads page...
Get the manual
In either PDF or Wiki form, the X-Plane manual can answer many of the questions you may have. See the Support page...
X-World: Links and Lists
Click here to jump to the X-World page.
Fly in space, fly on Mars
Only in X-Plane can you find accurate modelling of space and Martian flight. Click below to to open instructions on flying these special situations in X-Plane.
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Official X-Plane sites
XSquawkBox.net: The X-Plane Scenery Development page
Scenery Central: The X-Plane 8 scenery page
The X-Plane SDK: "Plug-In Headquarters"
X-Plane Airport and Navigation Data: The source for data updates and designer information.