FOSSPicks

Flight simulator

MScSim

The clue to the seriousness of this flight simulator is in its name, "MScSim." The developer is also responsible for an earlier project called "BScAero," and we can only assume these projects represent milestones in the developer's ongoing education from "Bachelor of Science" to "Master of Science." This is backed up by a mathematically intense document that accompanies MScSim entitled "Flight Dynamics Model for the Real-Time Flight Simulation" (itself released under a Creative Commons Public Domain license). The paper is difficult to understand without some prior insight into how flying works, but it does presumably illustrate how accurate the flight model in the simulator is. If you want to learn how to fly, this might just be the application.

MScSim isn't a game, but rather an accurate simulator of the flight dynamics model described in the paper, using real wind tunnel data for aircraft types including various helicopters, the humble Cessna 172, and the not so humble F-16 and F-35A jet fighters. But the simulator is also approachable and usable by anyone, thanks to its accessible application window and beautiful graphics. By default, for example, the simulator places you in a helicopter in the middle of an airport complex. Also, despite the many detailed panels that can be opened, it is still possible to simply try your hand at flying without the study. Just ramp up on the throttle and see how far you can go. Controls default to using your keyboard, but you can easily switch to a physical controller from the Preferences menu where you can freely assign functions to keys and buttons.

For the proper simulator experience, you need to spend some time opening the windows you're going to find most useful, because there are panels for everything. The amount of data they expose is intimidating, from a set of buttons to control the simulation state to the angle, pitch, and velocity values for how your craft is careering through the air. There are also the traditional flight control widgets (available as a separate open source project), feedback for controller input, and a top-down map of the airport. Each aircraft shares a standard heads-up display and the same autopilot, which works much like hardware in a real aircraft.

[...]