

The project moved to a regular release cadence with 2-4 releases per year since 2016, with the first version under the new naming scheme being "2016.1". įlightGear reached 1.0 in 2007, 2.0 in 2010, and there were 9 major releases under 2.x and 3.x labels, with the final one under the previous numbering scheme being "3.4", since "3.6" was cancelled. By 1999 FlightGear had replaced LaRCsim with JSBSim built to the sims' needs, and in 2015 NASA used JSBSim alongside 6 other space industry standards to create a measuring stick to judge future space industry simulation code. The first working binaries using OpenGL came out in 1997. FlightGear incorporated other open-source resources, including the LaRCsim flight dynamics engine from NASA, and freely available elevation data. Development of an OpenGL based version was spearheaded by Curtis Olson starting in 1997. The flight simulator was created using custom 3D graphics code. He was dissatisfied with proprietary, available, simulators like the Microsoft Flight Simulator, citing motivations of companies not aligning with the simulators' players ("simmers"), and proposed a new flight simulator developed by volunteers over the Internet. Its flight dynamics engine ( JSBSim) is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to the standards of the space industry.įlightGear started as an online proposal in 1996 by David Murr, living in the United States. It has specific builds for a variety of operating systems including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, IRIX, and Solaris.įlightGear is an atmospheric and orbital flight simulator used in aerospace research and industry. The project had its first release in 1997 and continued in development. ĭavid Murr started the project on April 8, 1996.

The project's goal has always been a sophisticated and Open Source flight simulator for research or academic environments, pilot training, and, of course, a fun, realistic, and challenging desktop flight simulator for anyone to enjoy.FlightGear Flight Simulator (often shortened to FlightGear or FGFS) is a free, open source multi-platform flight simulator developed by the FlightGear project since 1997. So, if you're considering a shareware commercial flight simulator, we recommend you try this one first.

You can fly numerous planes, helicopters and download hundreds of additional models for free.īeing Open Source, you will find that many commercial games are based on older versions of FlightGear, including Earth Flight Sim, Flight Pro Sim, Flight Simulator Plus, Pro Flight Simulator, Real Flight Simulator, and Virtual Pilot 3D. FlightGear is a free, Open Source flight simulator in development since 1996 and features many additional planes, helicopters, and scenery updates you can download.įlightGear has the advantage of being around for a long time and is probably the best, most developed free flight simulator you're going to find out there.
