Hello there!
There are a lot of exciting things going on at X-Plane! March saw the release of X-Plane 10.35 for desktop computers, and the first major update for X-Plane 10 Mobile is coming soon. Creator Austin Meyer has been busy too, between the patent troll lawsuit and his custom airplane, and he’s writing all about it on the Austin’s Adventures blog. Read on for the low down on both X-Plane updates, as well as a chance to fly two top-secret drone models.
Major Updates for X-Plane 10 for Desktop & Mobile
The latest release for X-Plane 10 Desktop was the first time airports from the Scenery Gateway have been included. Over 500 user-submitted airports with brand new 3-D scenery were shipped, and over a hundred more airports were improved. Additional changes in 10.35 included compatibility fixes for users with the Yosemite operating system, as well as some fixes for saving preferences and using the GNS430. Even Plane Maker got a few updates, one of which allows you to change the unit of measure between meters and inches.
See the full list of Gateway airports and improvements here.
X-Plane 10 Mobile will get some major changes in this first update. It is currently in beta testing now and will be released soon. Two new airliners will be available, complete with three new challenges. Two new tutorials will be released for the Cessna in which you can learn the basics of VOR navigation and flying an ILS landing. A map with navigational features will be available in Freeflight, and you’ll be able to set up approaches, tune radios, and more.
Tips and Tricks: View the Flight Model in Action
As users well know, X‑Plane is not a game but a powerful simulator that offers the most realistic flight model available. It’s is an engineering tool that can be used to predict the flying qualities of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with incredible accuracy. While using X-Plane 10 on your desktop computer or mobile device, you can even see the forces at work on your aircraft and understand the behind-the-scenes work the simulator is doing. Turn on the flight model using the steps below.
For Desktop Users
- Open the Special menu and click Show Flight Model (or press Ctrl + m) once to toggle the force vectors. This section of the manual explains what the colors mean.
- Toggle the flight model a second time to see the flow field around the plane.
- Toggle the flight model again to see the streamlines.
- Finally, toggling the flight model a fourth time will turn it off.
For Mobile Users
- Go to Freeflight to set up your flight’s location, weather, and time of day, then start your flight.
- Tap the three lines in the corner to open the menu.
- Tap the Flight Model button to display the force vectors, then return to your flight.
- To turn off the display, tap the menu then Flight Model buttons a second time.
And you’re all set! You’ll need to use an external view to see how your actions affect the visualization bars. Watch what happens as you add and decrease power, extend and retract the flaps, or slow to a stall, for example.
Featured Freeware
And now for something completely different! Back in January, Popular Science ran a feature article on stealth drones. To learn more about them, they enlisted X-Plane’s very own Austin Meyer to create two virtual model drones, using the sparse information that has been leaked. Austin and the folks at Popular Science then test flew the models of the Northrop Grumman RQ-180 and the BAE Systems Taranis in the X-Plane simulator.
You can run your very own test flights to see how these drones handle by downloading the models from X-Plane.com. See if you have the skills to keep the Taranis from a fiery end, or perhaps just enjoy the aerodynamics of the RQ-180.
– The X-Plane Team
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